NSCN(IM) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah.
Photo credit: NSCN-IM
Two days after the formal talks with the government started, members of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) faction held another round of talks with the government interlocutor AR Mishra. NSCN-IM’s Ato Kilonser and chief negotiator Thuingaleng Muivah led the talks from the outfit.
This round of talks started with an informal meeting earlier this week, with a formal sitdown on Wednesday. The constitution and the flag are what this round of talks are going to be centred around.
Sources involved in the process said that the government has expressed its willingness to move forward with the demand for a separate flag, but conversations around the constitution persist. The government had, in 2018, said that a constitution cannot be named such, and so, the word ‘izabo’ was suggested by the Naga bodies.
Muivah had said earlier this month that the government much come clear about its stand on the constitution and the flag. During his Naga Independence Day speech on August 14, he said that these two terms were “naturally inseparable from the sovereignty of a people.”
“There is no ambiguity among us about it, and the Indian government must accept it. They must take the stand,” he said.
The framework agreement for the Naga Peace talks was signed in August 2015, and over the years while the dialogue has progressed, in November 2017, the Centre signed agreements with six Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs). The NSCN Khaplang faction has steadfastly stayed away.