Nagaland: Why framework agreement implementation slow? NSCN-IM to Modi

Dimapur: On the 78th Naga Independence Day on Wednesday (August 14), the NSCN (IM) in Nagaland sought to know from PM Narendra Modi what made him go slow in implementing the Framework Agreement, his brainchild, signed on August 3, 2015.

Delivering the Naga Independence Day speech at Camp Hebron, NSCN (IM) general secretary Th. Muivah said: “Certainly, he is in default playing with the protracted Naga issue.”

Muivah said the world came to know better about the political rights of the Naga nation the day the Government of India and the NSCN signed the historic Framework Agreement.

Terming it as no ordinary event of history, Muivah, the NSCN/GPRN ato kilonser (prime minister), recalled that the whole process of signing ceremony was live broadcast and given the status of a high profile political solemnity and that the world was made to watch to bear witness.

Muivah said importantly, PM Modi led the massing of applauding throngs from his government, which was equally matched by the presence of NSCN dignitaries.

He said given the political importance that will go down into Indo-Naga history, Modi undertook the trouble to supervise the details from the beginning to the end.

“Ironically, the same PM has turned cool as the years keep going away,” Muivah lamented.

Calling the Framework Agreement a "matter of life and death" for the Nagas, he said: “If we fail to grasp the political significance of the agreement by displaying total lack of political foresight, the world at large will laugh at us for being frivolous when given such opportunity to make the best use of it.”

He added that even the time will come when the next generation will question the Nagas of today for their misplaced approach to the given historic agreement that carried the sovereign identity of the Naga people as a nation.

Further, he said it will be a "Himalayan blunder" if the Nagas placed themselves on the wrong side of the Framework Agreement.

“To put on record the recognition of the sovereign identity of the Naga nation, the Framework Agreement mentions ‘peaceful coexistence of the two entities’ which means India and Nagalim will have peaceful coexistence,” he noted.

He said this may go on for 10 years or 50 years, depending on how the mutual understanding is interpreted in the right spirit.

Muivah also said India will be accused or held responsible for serious breach of agreement with respect to peaceful coexistence of the two entities as mentioned in the Framework Agreement if it indulges in what is called ‘a departure from what is proper’ between two entities, dragging the vulnerable Nagas into a dangerous political brinkmanship.