Guwahati: Even as the country celebrates the 78th Independence Day on Thursday, Naga issue, the country's longest political conflict, remains unresolved with the NSCN-IM, the Naga rebel outfit in ceasefire, "celebrating Naga Independence Day" on Wednesday.
Most citizens across the country hoisted the tricolor as part of the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, the NSCN-IM members and some other Naga organisations, however, on Wednesday hoisted the "Naga national flag" having a star of Bethlehem and a red-yellow-green rainbow on an azure background. At the camp Hebron situated in the outskirts of Dimapur in Nagaland, where NSCN-IM leaders and members are lodged, "Naga army personnel" offered salute to the "Naga Flag" hoisted by Thuingaleng Muivah, its general secretary, whom they call Ato Kilonser (Prime Minister).
Several Naga groups including the NSCN claim that the Nagas were never part of India and had declared "independence" on August 14, 1947, a day before the Independence. They have been "celebrating" the day since then.
On Wednesday too, 90-year-old Muivah, in his speech said that Nagas will be independent. "Discussions with India are being carried on to that effect. Nagas do not accept the Indian Constitution. The rights of the people must prevail regardless of size.”
Talking about the "Framework Agreement" the Centre and NSCN-IM signed on August 3, 2015 in New Delhi, a year after the Narendra Modi government came to power, Muivah said the agreement was the milestone achievement of the dialogue. "Given the political importance that will go down into Indo-Naga history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook the trouble to supervise the details from the beginning to the end. Ironically, the same prime minister has turned cool as the years keep going away. What makes him go slow in implementing the framework agreement, his own brainchild? Certainly, he is in default playing with the protracted Naga issue," Muivah said. On August 11, the NSCN-IM also blamed the Prime Minister for non-implementation of the Framework Agreement.
The conflict
Hundreds of Nagas and security forces died in the Naga conflict till 1997 when the NSCN-IM agreed for a ceasefire agreement with the Centre and continued negotiations. Some agreements were signed in between but those were declared "null and void" by the NSCN-IM.
The Framework Agreement was to be the basis for signing a final agreement to end the conflict. But contrasting interpretation of the 2015 agreement by both the NSCN-IM and the Centre has delayed the solution. The Centre says NSCN-IM's insistence for recognition of a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas is delaying the process while the Naga outfit says flag, constitution and "integration" of Naga-inhabited areas in the Northeast is non-negotiable.