Govt keeps NSCN agreement under wraps

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 4

The Centre preferred to keep the details of the framework agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) under wraps amid questions about the exact nature of the accord that was announced here on Monday and whether it contains shades of what was hammered out three years ago.

Sources in the Government maintained that the matter would be placed before Parliament even as Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Acharya said in Guwahati there will be no change in the territorial status of States in the North-east.

There has been concern in the neighbouring states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur for long since the NSCN (I-M) insisted on Greater Nagaland to include areas where Naga people inhabit, be taken as one unit.

On its part, the statement from Prime Minister’s Office after the agreement ceremony underscored that the Government of India recognised the unique history, culture and position of the Nagas and their sentiments and aspirations. “The NSCN understood and appreciated the Indian political system and governance”.

A senior Congress leader mentioned that in 2012 the Centre interlocutor RS Pandey along with former Union Minister Oscar Fernandes had hammered out a pact that among other things took into account how to keep the Naga culture in different states where Naga people were residing in contiguous areas and an option of creating a Greater Naga Council with adequate powers.

However, three Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur opposed the plan and it was put on the backburner.

Meanwhile, the government announced that besides speaking to the Governor of Nagaland, the PM spoke to Nagaland CM TR Zeliang, former PMs Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi among many other leaders.