Nagas grow impatient as Manipur pushes peace issue out of Centre’s priority list

The Naga peace process appears to be in a permanent limbo after more than 600 rounds of talks spanning over 27 years, exposing the Modi government’s failure to iron out complex issues confronting the sensitive north-eastern region.

Adding to the stalemate is the alleged degrading of the Naga issue from the Centre’s immediate priority list for the North East in the wake of the outbreak of ethnic violence in Manipur.

“The Home Ministry and its North East adviser AK Mishra (also Centre’s emissary in the Naga peace process) are so occupied with the Manipur problem that the Naga peace process is not getting due attention,” alleged former Nagaland BJP president Ato Yepthomi.

Meeting with Shah

Many in the Nagaland government echoed Yepthomi’s view in private, citing that even the state government’s request for a meeting of an all-party delegation of the state with Home Minister Amit Shah was awaiting a response for over a month.

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The Nagaland Assembly in its last session from March 3 to 8 had suggested that the delegation led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio should meet Shah to apprise him about the need to expedite a resolution of the Naga political issues.

Rio also personally reminded Shah about the assembly’s suggestion when the two met in Guwahati on March 16, informed sources said.

Emissary is too busy

That the state government is still awaiting the Home Ministry’s response only substantiates the allegation that the Centre has deprioritised the Naga problem.

There has been also no dedicated Central interlocutor for the peace talks ever since RN Ravi was shunted out of the post in 2021.

Current emissary AK Mishra has too much on his plate, as he is also multitasking as the Union Home Ministry’s North East adviser, Yepthomi added.

Also read: Nagaland, Manipur resist SC-mandated delimitation based on 2001 census

Free-movement regime

The state government's insistence for an audience with the home minister is understandable given the growing restiveness among the militant groups over the stalemate.

Besides, there is also outcry in the state's bordering areas against the Centre's decision to withdraw the free-movement regime (FMR) with Myanmar.

The protests in the border area can further fuel insurgency in the state if not addressed sensibly, officials say.

Naga rebels' warning

Peeved by the deadlock, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) recently threatened to resume its “violent armed resistance against India” and demanded a third-party intervention to break the impasse.

Intelligence sources said a highly-trained group of cadres of the outfit led by its former commander-in-chief Phungting Shimrang has already been placed in Myanmar so that it can be “activated” for a renewed “armed struggle” in case the peace process collapses.

The group consists of 100-150 cadres, intelligence sources said, adding that Shimrang is based somewhere in China, probably Ruili in Yunnan.

Also read: Centre urged to merge two pacts to solve Naga issue

Border activities

Indian security forces have also observed heightened cross-border activities (including clashes with Myanmar's ethnic militant outfits) of the Naga militants along the Indo-Myanmar border in the past few months, the sources said.

The security apparatus in Nagaland is apprehensive that the militants based in Myanmar can further exploit to their advantage the brewing tension over the scrapping of the FMR.

Thousands of residents of Naga villages on the either side of the border, under the aegis of the Khiamniungan Tribal Council (KTC), staged a huge protest on the international border in Nagaland’s Noklak district on April 3 in a show of cross-border solidarity against the Centre’s decision.

Snapping intra-Naga links

The Naga tribes on both sides of the border not only share common ethnicity and culture but also strong economic ties due to the FMR.

The FMR allowed people on the bordering areas to travel up to 16 kilometres on either side of the international border without any travel document.

The Naga Self-Administered Zone in the Naga Hills areas of Myanmar’s Sagaing Region is one of the world’s most underdeveloped areas with limited access to healthcare, education, electricity and other basic amenities.

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Border fencing

They largely depend on border trades with their brethren on this side for basic needs. The withdrawal of FMR and border fencing will snap the age-old ties, the KTC said in a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding continuation of the free-movement regime.

Apart from the Naga political issue, the chief minister informed Amit Shah that the FMR and border fencing along the India-Myanmar border were the vital issues that needed to be discussed for immediate resolution, a senior Nagaland minister told The Federal on condition of anonymity.

Naga peace process

The assurance given by Mishra in February this year to soon resume formal talks with militant groups is yet to fructify, he added.

The peace negotiations with the Naga militant outfit, the NSCN-IM, commenced after the outfit entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Indian government in 1997.

A major breakthrough came in the peace process when a framework agreement was signed between the Centre and the NSCN (IM) in the presence of Prime Minister Modi in 2015, within a year of assuming office by his BJP government.

Also read: Naga conflict: NSCN-IM warns of 'armed conflict'

Stalled peace moves

Other Naga militant groups that were holding parallel negotiations with the Centre meanwhile formed a joint front called the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), a conglomeration of seven armed groups. It signed an “agreed position” with the Centre in 2017.

Unfortunately, there had been no forward movement since 2019 to take the peace process to its logical conclusion based on the framework and agreed terms laid in the two separate deals.

The talks with the NSCN (IM) hit a road-block in 2019 after it developed serious disagreement with the Centre’s then interlocutor Ravi over its demand for a sperate Constitution and a Naga flag.

Narrow worldview

Mishra, a former special director of Intelligence Bureau (IB), replaced Ravi in 2021 to bring the peace process back on track.

Unfortunately, he could not break the ice mostly because the Centre has limited the scope of accommodating aspirations for ethnic self-determination within the ambit of the Indian constitution by abrogating Article 370.

The Naga peace process is not the only vexed issue the Centre is failing to resolve in the Northeast.

Rest of North East

It has not been able to resolve the ethnic conflict raging in Manipur for about two years.

The protracted border disputes between various northeastern states continue to be a flash point even though Shah in 2022 had pompously promised to resolve all the problems of the region by 2024.