Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday assured people in the North East that there would be no “one-sided decision” on the 2015 pact signed between the Centre and the Isak Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland outfit, according to IANS.
“As the Prime Minister, I assure you that people will be consulted and no one-sided decision shall be taken on the burning issue,” Modi is reported to have told an eight-member team from three Manipuri civil organisations. The delegates had met him on Thursday.
Modi also said that people of the north-eastern states should not believe in “tendentious rumours” but depend on the government’s statement. The people should focus on development, peace and welfare, he said.
The meeting comes amid repeated demands from various people that the contents of the pact must be revealed. The Manipur Assembly had passed a resolution on December 22 seeking this.
Manipur’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Opposition Congress had said that the territorial integrity of the state must be maintained. Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are reportedly apprehensive that the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah faction will demand parts of territories of the three states to constitute a Greater Nagaland.
The framework agreement
The Centre has been talking to National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak Muivah), the largest Naga rebel group, since 1997. That year, the group signed a ceasefire. In 2015, the talks got a new lease of life after Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a “framework agreement” with the NSCN(IM).
For decades, Naga rebel groups have been fighting for Nagalim or Greater Nagaland. This was envisioned as sovereign territory consisting of Nagaland and “all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas”, including parts of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar, across the border.
The secessionist movement began under the Naga National Council, which signed the contentious Shillong Accord of 1975 with the Indian government. In the decades that followed, the movement was split up into several factions. Each group now runs a rebel “government” in Nagaland.
The details of the framework agreement signed in 2015 have not yet been made public but it is understood that it acknowledges the “uniqueness of Naga history and culture” in exchange for the NSCN(IM)’s respect for the “primacy of the Indian constitution”.
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