KOHIMA, 9 Nov: Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Tuesday said that the signing of a new agreement between the Centre and any of the negotiating groups to find a solution to the vexed Naga issue would bring new developments and make the state “very, very special.”
The union government has been holding two separate parleys with the NSCN (IM) since 1997 and the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG), comprising seven groups, since 2017.
“The negotiations are going on. They are the negotiating parties and I cannot say what is going to happen or what is happening. It is for them to say (something on the issue),” Rio told reporters on the sidelines of an official programme.
He, however, said that the signing of the framework agreement with the NSCN (IM) or the ‘agreed position’ with the PGs meant formulation of a system about how to protect the uniqueness, history, culture and tradition of the Naga people.
The central government and the NSCN (IM) signed the framework agreement in 2015 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while the PGs inked the ‘agreed position’ with the Centre in November 2017.
“Many more new things will be added to us and we will be a very, very special state if any agreement comes,” said Rio.
The framework agreement came after over 80 rounds of negotiations spanning 18 years, with the first breakthrough in 1997, when the ceasefire agreement was sealed after decades of insurgency in Nagaland which started soon after independence in 1947.
The negotiations between the NSCN (IM) and the Centre had stopped following the former’s refusal to hold deliberations with then interlocutor RN Ravi after the 31 October, 2019 talks in Dimapur.
No final solution has been achieved with the NSCN (IM) remaining firm on its demand for a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas, which the Centre has rejected.
Talks resumed after a gap of almost two years, following the appointment of AK Mishra as the new interlocutor in September this year. (PTI)
