Waiting for seventeen long years : From the PM to the interlocutor ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: Ocotber 10, 2014 -
Peace talk. Relatively easy to start one but tough to take it to a conclusion.
The ongoing peace talk between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) fits this bill perfectly. Probably this could be the reason why the peace process between the Naga armed outfit and New Delhi has dragged on for 17 years with no sign that an agreement is anywhere near being inked.
The politics of peace can be dicey and unpredictable.
More than likely that this is something which the Naga rebel group had not anticipated when the peace pact was signed on August 1, 1997.
From ceasefire to political dialogue the peace process between the two entities can be said to be moving though it anybody’s guess towards what it is moving.
To the public, especially the Naga people, it is not yet clear what the principal demand of the IM group is.
Is it really sovereignty or something else ?
Or is it about integrating all the Naga inhabited areas under one administrative unit or is it something else, but which nonetheless has got something to do with the Naga people, such as Alternative Arrangement ?
No one seems to know, especially the common people, on whose behalf the bush war was first waged and the peace process has been taken up.
Nothing illustrates this better than the cease fire ground rules which have more often than not being violated primarily because of its vagueness.
A point which has been underlined by the fact that though the cease fire is limited within the territory of Nagaland, officially, the ground reality tells a different story.
What happened in Manipur in 2001 when the Bangkok Declaration was inked on June 14 whereby the words ‘Without territorial limits’ were inserted in the cease fire pact is still recalled to this day.
At the highest level, probably meaning the office of the Prime Minister was again an accepted clause of the cease fire agreement, but today this too stands under a cloud of vagueness.
From the PMO to the office of the interlocutor could have far reaching political implications, if the report which appeared in The Assam Tribune on October 8, 2014 is anything to go by.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the think tank of the BJP Government may be under the impression that they are safeguarding the sanctity of the Prime Minister’s office, but there is the potential of such a move not going down well with the IM leadership.
Remember all the past Prime Ministers from PV Narasimha Rao to Dr Manmohan Singh have held talks with the IM leadership and coming out with a new arrangement at this juncture will not go down well, with not only the IM leadership but also with numerous Naga civil society organisations.
If there is a clause in the peace pact that the talk will be held at the level of the Prime Minister then the BJP Government would do well to stick by this.
Seventeen years is a long time and the Government of India should keep this in mind.
Will not help the cause of the Nation in any way if the peace process breaks down or faces another hiccup.
Not a question of one upmanship but more a question of sticking by what was agreed in the first place.
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