RN Ravi talks peace talk with State intellectuals
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 13 2017: RN Ravi, the Centre's interlocutor for the ongoing political dialogue with NSCN-IM, held a meeting with a team of State intellectuals at the Prime Minister's office, New Delhi today .

The team of intellectuals included Dr RK Ranjan, senior journalist Pradip Phan- joubam, Prof Amar Yumnam, Prof (retd) Ksh Bimola and Prof (retd) N Joykumar .

During the meeting which started at 10 am and went on till 12 noon, the State team tabled a number of suggestions including comprehen- sive measures for bringing lasting peace in the entire North East region rather than engaging with NSCN-IM alone .

Since a Framework Agreement has been signed between the Government of India and NSCN-IM on August 3, 2015 with a view to work out a final settlement to the protracted political dialogue, RN has held several rounds of meetings with civil society leaders of both Nagaland and Manipur .

It is said that the State delegates were invited to the meeting to seek their suggestions and feedbacks on how to take things forward .

One of the delegates said that the status of the Framework Agreement is seemingly nothing less or more than what is already in public domain .

Another delegate said that there was nothing much to say about the meeting and it was nothing recommendatory .

The delegates were of the opinion that no breakthrough has been achieved so far on how to resolve the issue .

Even though President Ram Nath Kovind announced during the recently concluded Hornbill Festival of Nagaland that a final settlement to the Naga issue is round the corner, interlocutor RN Ravi maintained that no deadline could be fixed for final settlement of the Naga issue .

He made this statement before a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by senior Congress leader P Chidam-baram on November 27 .

Ravi told the Parliamentary panel that "no deadline" could be fixed for the Naga peace agreement and talks were on with at least five or six Naga groups other than the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) .

Ravi told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs that the NSCN-IM had been insisting that since it was the "legitimate Naga group", negotiations should take place only with it but that was not the stand of the Government of India .

The Centre and the NSCN-IM had earlier issued a joint statement that they were "closer than ever before to the final settlement and hope to conclude it sooner than later" .

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