No headway in Naga peace talks

New Delhi, August 21

With the NSCN-IM insisting on a separate flag and constitution and Centre’s negotiators saying the two are “non-negotiable”, the ongoing Naga peace talks to settle political issues appear to have reached a deadlock.

Sources said on the insistence of the NSCN-IM leadership that they would not prefer talks with the Centre’s interlocutor and Nagaland Governor, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) assigned the task of engaging them to top Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials.

The IB officials held several rounds of talks with the NSCN-IM leadership led by Thuingaleng Muivah (86), but they continued insisting on a separate flag and constitution and drifted from the “framework agreement” reached in 2015, where they agreed to sort out the issues within the limits of the Indian Constitution, sources added.

It was once again explained to them that the two demands are “untenable” and “non-negotiable”, as no other state or Union Territory under the Union of India has the two assigned to them of their own, the sources said. — TNS