The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Naga talks cloud Manipur elections
BLOCKADES NOW IN 3RD MONTH
THE NAGA talks have again emerged as a contentious issue ahead of the March 4 and 8 Assembly polls in Manipur, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to allay fears over it in his first election speech on Saturday.
The Manipur elections will be held under the shadow of two counter blockades now in force in the state since November last year. The United Naga Council (UNC) was the first to announce the blockade, pitting the residents of the Imphal valley and those of the Naga hills against each other. The Meitei valley civil organisations had then responded with a counter-blockade.
Despite assurances from Union Home Minister of State Kiren Rijiju, and a high-level meeting between state representatives, the UNC and Union Home Ministry officials, the two sides have refused to lift the blockade.
Last week, the All Manipur Students’ Union launched agitations against the Naga groups.
AMSU headquarters organisational secretary Anil Thongbam dismissed the PM’S promise in his speech on Saturday to not hurt Manipur’s interests. “Verbal assurances from the Prime Minister” are simply not enough, he said.
“We strongly believe that the contents of the Framework Agreement (as the August 2015 Naga pact is referred to by the Centre) are not in the interests of the people of Manipur. We demand that the contents of the agreement be made public by the Indian government. Why have a hidden agreement at all if it’s going to benefit everybody?... Make it public and give it in written,” Thongbam said.
In December, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh had for the first time publicly called the UNC a frontal organisation of the NSCN (I-M), and accused it of keeping the conflict going by not removing the economic blockade. He had also accused the Centre of siding with the Nagas and the NSCN (I-M).
In a press statement issued on Friday, the NSCN (I-M)’S Ministry of Information and Publicity called the Framework Agreement “a milestone” for the Nagas, and said, “Some greedy people are trying to rebut the Framework Agreement without any decency.”
The statement added that the issue was being “distorted” and the demand to reveal the contents had come at a time when “the Naga issue has entered a new remarkable stage and gained momentum during the last few years engaging a dialogue with the GOI (government of India) in the right direction, and where both NSCN and GOI were seriously committed to inking on a deeper level than ever before for unconditional settlement.”
“At this crucial stage when the entire Naga populace is sincerely yearning for the final settlement, there are some individuals trying to sabotage the peace talks between the NSCN and GOI,” the statement said.