UNC urges Shinde to set talk date
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 15 2013: The United Naga Council (UNC) has urged the Union Home Minister to communicate the date for the next round of tripartite talk involving the Government of India, Government of Manipur and UNC within 15 days from now and to ensure that the GoM would be represented with the mandate and authority to address the issue at hand.

In a memorandum submitted to the Union Home Minister, the UNC also suggested that the next round of talk may be held at Tamenglong district headquarters as already assured vide MHA letter No 8/8/2008-NE on Feb 6, 2013 .

The UNC memo signed by its president, L Adani and general secretary, Gaidon Kamei said the fifth round of tripartite talk of the Government of India (GoI), Government of Manipur (GoM) and the Nagas in Manipur under the aegis of the United Naga Council (UNC) on the demand for an alternative arrangement was held on February 12 .

The talk concluded with the GoI assuring that the next round of talk would be held very soon stressing on the need to continue the dialogue process.

A period of 5 months has since elapsed and during which time the UNC has issued public statements on the unabated 'communal policies and actions' of the GoM targeting the Nagas and the tribals in Manipur, the UNC said adding it was a matter of great concern that no communication has been received from the GoI on the dialogue process till date.

"It may be noted that the UNC had placed on record that the GoI and the GoM must be respectful of the democratic process of dialogue and avoid delay in convening the talk as done in past instances " .

"We have also insisted that the dialogue should be political as the core issue is political.

But the representative of the GoM has been maintaining that they do not have the mandate to talk on the political issue and that the same should be done at the political level," the UNC representation to the Union Home Minister said.

The UNC further cited that in the 1st round of talk held at North Block, Delhi on the September 21, 2010 it was assured by the GoI that representation of GoM would have the mandate and authority to talk on the issues raised by the UNC.

The GoI vide its letter No.8/8/2008-NEI dated Nov 24, 2010 had communicated to the UNC that the GoM had been advised to come prepared to discuss the memorandum dated Sept 14, 2010 submitted by the UNC in the talk scheduled for Dec 3, 2012 .

Further, vide their letter dated Nov 27, 2010, the GoM had informed that it would be represented in the next round of talk (2nd round) by three Ministers, who would be assisted by the Chief Secretary and other senior officials.

But in the Dec 3, 2010 talk held at Tahamzam (Senapati), the GoM was represented by the Chief Secretary and senior officials who stated that political issues can be taken up only at the appropriate level.

The GoI had intervened saying that all aspects have to be discussed without reservation and that the State government may not be restricted in understanding the issues and conveying them to the political authorities, it said.

"Thus the talk was continued and in the subsequent rounds, ie 3rd, 4th and 5th round the UNC has presented its case for an alternative political arrangement for the Nagas in Manipur outside the GoM and had submitted the postulates of the alternative arrangement in the 4th round held at Delhi on Aug 31, 2012.All these while, the GoM representatives maintained a wholesale stand of not being competent to address the political issue," it alleged.

"It is thus our submission that representation of GoM in the tripartite talk should be competent and authorised to address the issue tabled by the UNC without which it would be considered a disrespect for the democratic process of dialogue and also for the sentiments of the Naga people in Manipur," the UNC memo added.

A copy of the representation was also sent to Anil Goswami, Secretary, MHA and Shambhu Singh, Jt Secretary (North East), MHA.

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