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Don’t talk on issues about which you are ignorant, NSCN-IM tells Rijiju
Nagaland’s oldest and largest rebel group is angry at Union minister of state for home over Kiren Rijiju over his statements on Naga peace talks.
The Isak-Muivah faction of Naga rebel outfit Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) ticked off Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju on Monday for his statement that it had dropped the issue of “sovereignty” in its political talks with Centre on a final solution to the Naga issue.
In a statement, the NSCN (I-M) which signed a framework agreement with the Centre in 2015, blamed Rijiju for “creating a lot of confusion” with his statements and accused him of “vitiating the environment of the negotiation” with his “repeated immature statement” on the ongoing Naga peace talks.
“When the talk is progressing at the highest level, Mr Rijiju has no business to talk on political issues of which he is ignorant. We advice him to refrain himself from such repetition in near future in the interest of both the parties,’ the statement said.
The reaction came following Rijiju’s interaction with journalists here on Saturday where he stated NSCN-IM had dropped the issue of “sovereignty” in the peace political talks with the Centre.
“It is unbecoming of Mr Rijiju to have made such statements through the local and national media of the on-going negotiation to which he is incompetent to comment,” the statement said.
“At no point of the negotiation have both the parties ignored important political issues, and the concocted statement of Mr Rijiju that, “NSCN has ‘dropped’ the stand of the Nagas on their sovereign right” is a figment of his own imagination,” it added.
Ending years of talks, NSCN-IM and the Centre had signed a framework agreement in August, 2015. The agreement laid the foundation for further talks on finding a ‘final solution’.
Since details of the agreement is not yet public, there’s lot of speculation and fear in northeast on what would happen if the Centre agreed to the long-standing demand of Naga groups to create a Greater Nagalim encompassing Naga-inhabited areas in other states of the region.
Union ministers have repeatedly assured that the final solution with Naga peace groups won’t affect territorial integrity of other states in northeast, but lingering doubts still remain.
Six more Naga rebel groups, which had not joined the talks earlier, started confabulations with the Centre towards the end of last year raising hopes that the nearly six-decade old issue would get sorted soon.
