Reaching out to all stakeholders : Inclusive approach
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 14 2017 -

This may not be the first time that Interlocutor to the peace talk between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India, RN Ravi is meeting eminent personalities from Manipur to discuss the ongoing peace parley.

More than sure that RN Ravi must have also met eminent personalities from Nagaland and eminent Naga personalities from Manipur too.

What however makes the December date between Ravi and five personalities from Manipur significant is the timing of the meeting.

This is significant for there are more than enough indications that a final solution may be inked any day soon, with former Chief Minister of Nagaland and now Lok Sabha MP Nephiu Rio sounding the call to ink the final agreement as a Christmas present for the Nagas.

A clear reflection that some hard lessons have been learnt from the Bangkok Declaration of 2001 when the NDA Government in its earlier innings inserted the words, “without territorial limits” in the cease fire pact with the NSCN (IM).

The very act of inviting some eminent personalities from Manipur to get their reading of the situation in the State is welcome, for this is a sure indication that the BJP Government is keeping its doors open to different and even opposite stands on the Framework Agreement.

It is also significant to note that of the five people who received the invitation from RN Ravi, four are from academics and one journalist.

And among the four academics, one of them who now happens to be with the BJP, was invited not as a BJP man but as a thinker, an intellectual of the State.

This is a fresh approach and this is what is welcome. Inviting feedbacks from people who are free from the ideological shackles of political parties.

Along with taking inputs from people who matter in Manipur, it is also significant to note that the BJP led Government at the Centre has also reached out to the other groups in Nagaland, particularly the six groups which have come together under the banner Naga National Political Groups (NNPG), and taken them onboard before inking the final deal.

So from a peace process which was identified only with the IM group of the NSCN, today it has come to encompass the entire Naga people of Nagaland.

This again is a novel move and will surely go down well with the people of Nagaland. More inclusive that is and this is a healthy move.

Yet the air of apprehension felt in Manipur is overwhelming and this is despite the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured the people that the territorial integrity of Manipur will not be affected.

On the other hand there is the suspicion that the seeds of disintegration may be sown in the final pact and though the territorial integrity of Manipur may remain intact for now, the final pact may just lead to disintegration in the future.

It is this line which the Congress has been highlighting in all its public meetings demanding that the details of the Framework Agreement be spelt out.

Giving credence to the line of Congress is the admission of Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang who went on record to state that the doors for Naga integration is always kept open, while talking in the context of the Framework Agreement and the final pact that is likely to come soon.

Nothing in black and white now, but this is what has added to the air of apprehension.