Thuingalen Muivah, the general secretary of NSCN(I-M), is from Manipur and if the peace talks fail and the Nagas in Manipur districts rise in revolt then the situation will be complicated further
By Amitava Mukherjee
Another bomb is ticking away in the northeast. In Manipur, the Kuki-Meitei clash ensued over the question of encroachment of forest lands and granting scheduled tribe status to the latter. There is no overt or covert tone of secession or denial of the authority of the State or the central government. It was a multi-cornered violent protest against some governmental actions. But a more dangerous volcano is bidding its time in neighbouring Nagaland. If not handled properly and expeditiously, the Naga insurgency can throw the entire northeastern part of India into a total topsy-turvy.
AK Mishra, the interlocutor on behalf of the Government of India, met the leadership of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim(Issac-Muivah) in April last. Nothing is known about what transpired in the discussion. This is exactly the arena where the Government of India (GoI) has been continuing to err for a long time. It is an age-old bureaucratic approach — hide and seek, tricks and subterfuges without realising that the need of the hour is transparency which will go a long way towards earning the Naga people’s faith.
The Logjam
So far, as public knowledge is concerned, the logjam is over two points — what was really there in the Framework Agreement signed between the NSCN(I-M) and the GoI in 2015 and whether the central government would agree to a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas. Here again, the central government procrastinated by pushing under the carpet the terms of the agreement for a long time. It is still not officially public in spite of repeated NSCN pressures for bringing the agreement to light. If the leaks are to be believed, then the agreement stipulates sharing of sovereign power by the GoI and the Nagas and that for a peaceful coexistence, the Centre and the Nagas would enter into an all-encompassing new relationship.
So long the GoI has kept silent on the above-mentioned leak. The disclosure has come from the NSCN(I-M). Arguably, from the GoI’s side, the wording of this particular portion of the agreement cannot be called the handiwork of a mature person. This has given rise to confusion. What does ‘sharing of sovereign power mean’? Does the agreement pave for the creation of another sovereign country by cutting out a slice from the map of India? If not, the GoI must categorically deny the existence of any such provision in the agreement. Talks of a ‘new relationship’ between the Centre and the Nagas are equally confusing.
Framework Agreement
We do not know about the veracity of the NSCN(I-M) claim in this regard. But one thing is sure — the Framework Agreement has complicated the matter more rather than solving it. A trust deficit has taken hold of the situation. Recently Q Tuccu, the chairman of the NSCN(I-M), described the central government- (NSCN(I-M) peace talks as “bluff and bluster all the way with no seriousness”. “The absurdity of the situation regarding Indo-Naga political talks is entirely the making of the government of India as its commitment to the Framework Agreement has turned unsavoury with each passing day”, Tuccu has observed.
This is the toughest test for the central government in the northeast, tougher than the Manipur situation. Thuingalen Muivah, the general secretary of the NSCN(I-M), is from Manipur. He is a Tangkhul Naga and the Tangkhuls enjoy numerical majority in four hill districts of Manipur namely Ukhrul, Senapati, Chandel and Tamenglong. If the peace talks fail and the Nagas in these four Manipur districts rise in revolt then the situation will be complicated further.
Moreover, today the Naga issue is not just restricted to Nagaland and the northeast. It is now a matter of countrywide discussion and deliberation. The central government must try for a nationwide consensus on the problem.
Peace Talks
Four complicated issues have bedevilled the peace talks for so long — the NSCN demand for a greater Nagaland incorporating the Naga inhabited areas of other northeastern states, the NSCN(I-M) demand for a separate Naga flag and a Naga Constitution, and the existence of the Naga National Political Group (NNPG), another organisation of militant Nagas.
Thuingaleng Muivah is a calculating personality. He knows that the central government can never agree to a greater Nagaland — slicing away Naga-inhabited areas of other northeastern States and then incorporating them into the existing Nagaland. So he has broached the idea of a Pan Naga Ho Ho. Complete autonomy will have to be given to the Nagas living in other States and those areas will come under total administrative control of the Pan Naga Ho Ho. It will mean an extension of NSCN(I-M) control over these areas.
How will the central government solve this problem? Muivah is not a son of the Nagaland soil. So jettisoning the demand of integrating other Naga-inhabited areas of other northeastern States may lead to a question over his own locus standi in Nagaland affairs. This may be another reason behind the NSCN(I-M) demand for a separate flag for the Nagas.
According to information, the central government is willing to agree to a cultural flag for the Nagas. But the NSCN has not agreed to it. Similarly, the GoI can’t agree to any separate Constitution for the Nagas. There may be some arrangements giving Naga customs some sort of constitutional recognition. But it is believed that not much headway has been achieved in this regard.
Something is perhaps brewing in the NSCN(I-M) think tank in the wake of the Manipur riots. The organisation has already named certain Naga tribes living in Manipur hills and has warned that there must not be any attack on them. It is high time the central government ensured that no inter-community mistrust, like in Manipur, now spreads in Nagaland. Already there is a sufficient amount of bad blood between the NSCN(I-M) and the NNPG.
The NSCN, apart from the Tangkhuls, enjoy considerable support among the Sema and Zeliang tribes while the NNPG, bearing the legacy and leadership structure of the NSCN (Khaplang), has large sway over the AO and Konyak tribes. The NSCN(I-M) has already extended its influence in the North Cachhar and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam while, probably as a counterpoise, the Nagas of Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh have declared their support for the NNPG.
The Naga insurgency is called the ‘mother of all insurgencies in India’. Tackling it demands considerable dexterity. Do the bureaucrats and intelligence officials, appointed by the central government in New Delhi as interlocutors, possess it?