Almost a year after the Naga framework agreement was signed by the government with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), a top government official told a National newspaper that they were still not sure of giving a “time frame” for the final peace pact. Another official said the insurgent group had gone back on its demand for “full sovereignty.”
On Friday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with Joint Intelligence Committee chief R.N Ravi, who is also the interlocutor for Naga talks.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of a claim made by the NSCN-IM on June 20 that the Government of India had accepted its demand for a separate passport and flag.
R.H. Raising, the Kilo Kilonser (home minister) of the NSCN-IM, had said the Government of India had agreed to the group’s demand for a separate passport and a separate flag.
“Whoever is making these claims is not true. The negotiations and talks are still on,” said one of the officials present at the meeting on Friday. Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief Rajinder Khanna was also present during the deliberations.
“It will be difficult to give a time frame for the talks to conclude, it can be tomorrow or might take six more months,” said the official.
At a meeting of the Ceasefire Monitoring Group held in April in Delhi, the government raised the issue of extortion by the NSCN-IM in different parts of Nagaland and Manipur and asked it to stop such activity. (Agencies)