We welcome the formation of core committee on Naga political issue: NSCN-IM

With Nagaland forming a Parliamentary Committee on Naga Political issue comprising of all the 60 Members of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly, and two Members of Parliament, NSCN-IM stated it welcomed the formation of Core Committee as long as there is no attempt to dilute the spirit and substance of the Framework Agreement (FA). The committee has chief minister Neiphiu Rio as convenor and leader of opposition TR Zeliang as co-convenor. The Parliamentary Committee shall discuss matters relating to the Naga Political issue and play the role of facilitator in the ongoing peace talks between the Government of India and the Naga Political Groups.

Framework Agreement was signed on the 3rd of August 2015. NSCN-IM in a statement stated that the much talked about Framework Agreement (FA) is not something that was signed in a hurry. It was the result of the well thought out proposal from the Government of India (GoI) when the Indo-Naga political talk faced a deadlock-like situation as the Indian and Naga leaders took their respective stands with no meeting point when the talk touched on the core issue of solution within Indian constitution (Indian stand) and outside the Indian constitution (Naga stand). It was the result after going through a long series of talks when the Government of India finally proposed the Framework Agreement as a formula of a win-win solution. Significantly, the talks had revolved around the FA with both the parties cautiously taking care not to allow either side to take strategic advantage or deviation from FA.

“However, 'foot-in-mouth' syndrome identified with the state BJP unit in Nagaland is already giving the Core Committee a bad picture before the work takes off. No such committee is expected to bear fruits if historical reality is not taken into account. If the BJP want to solve the Naga political issue within the Indian Constitution it is high time the BJP make its stand very clear if it takes cognizance of the Naga national movement with reference to the declaration of the Naga Independence on the 14th August 1947 and the Naga Plebiscite on the 16th May 1951. BJP should make its stand very clear, either to admit these factual accounts of history or deny it,” NSCN-IM said.


The outfit stated that this is to point out that Core Committee members should not overrate themselves or outdo their role at the cost of destroying the Naga political identity that NSCN has robustly protected throughout the two decades of talk with the Government of India. The mistakes of history should not be repeated at the hands of the Core Committee.