Article 371(A) bears no political meaning — NSCN (IM)

DIMAPUR—The NSCN (IM) has said that the Article 371(A), which was inserted in the Constitution of India after the signing of 16-Point Agreement in 1960, “no longer bears any political meaning” as the Framework Agreement was signed in 2015 to “nullify all the past acts of injustice to the Nagas and bring new solution/agreement that is honorable and acceptable”.

While maintaining that the signing of Indo-Naga Ceasefire in 1997 and the subsequent peace talks between the government of Indian and the NSCN had huge political implications, the group said “it was mean to make redundant the past political decisions and do away with factors extraneous to the Indo-Naga political issue”.

“Framework Agreement was not signed in clandestine manner. It took as many as 13 years of tough negotiations after Government of India granted official recognition to the uniqueness of Naga history and situation in 2002.

“The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi was so much carried away by such political achievement that he made the arrangement to make the world bear living witness to the signing of the Framework Agreement as the high profile signing ceremony was live-telecast worldwide,” read the press release.

[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]

It added that Modi is yet to implement his “brainchild Framework Agreement” after declaring that he had solved the longest insurgency issue in Southeast Asia.

“Naturally, it was a tough going for NSCN. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” it stated.

The NSCN (IM) also reiterated its stand on the decades-long political issue taken at the ‘Naga National Assembly’ in 2022, that it will never deviate from the Naga national principle at any cost and uphold and protect the unique history. 

“This implies that under no circumstances the core issues of Naga National Flag and Constitution (Yehzabo) that symbolized the Naga national identity will be compromised in the name of Naga political solution,” it reminded.

“Flag and constitution are constituent parts of sovereignty. There is no ambiguity about it,” it added.

It went on to say that any Naga political group seeking solution “under the terms of the Indian constitution would be repeating the past mistakes and tantamount to violating the sanctity of God given Naga political rights”.