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New Delhi, Aug. 7 (PTI): The NSCN (IM) is unlikely to hold further peace talks with Nagaland Governor and Centre’s interlocutor RN Ravi as the Naga insurgent group has conveyed its “unhappiness” to the top functionaries of the central government over his style of functioning, sources said on Friday.
This comes as the top leadership of the NSCN (IM) has arrived in Delhi for a fresh round of negotiation with the central government, possibly with a new interlocutor.
The NSCN (IM) has conveyed to the central government that the group would not hold any further negotiation with Ravi, who has been engaged in dialogue with the group since 2014, sources privy to the development said.
The key grievances of the NSCN (IM) against Ravi seem to be his “misinterpretation” of the 2015 framework agreement and his letter to Nagaland government, asking it to rein in “armed gangs”.
The framework agreement was signed on August 3, 2015, by NSCN (IM) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and Ravi in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hammer out a final solution.
However, it is immediately not known whether the central government has acceded to NSCN (IM)’s demand for removal of Ravi as interlocutor.
Ravi was in Kohima on Friday while the entire top NSCN (IM) leadership arrived in Delhi.
Sources said Ravi had invited Muivah for talks when the later was in Nagaland. However, Muivah avoided the meeting citing ill health and returned to the national capital late last month.
In his June letter to the state government, Ravi had said the “armed groups” were “challenging the legitimacy of the state government without any resistance from the state law and order machinery and “creating a crisis of confidence in the system”.
While the letter did not mention NSCN (IM), the group is believed to be deeply upset with its content.
Asserting his powers under Article 371A of the Constitution, Ravi suggested that henceforth, important law and order decisions like the transfer and posting of officials entrusted with maintenance of law and order of and above the district level (will) be after the approval of the governor”.
In October last year, in a statement, Ravi had ruled out a separate flag and Constitution for the Nagas as demanded by the NSCN-IM and made it clear that the “endless negotiations with the insurgent group under the shadow of guns is not acceptable”.
Ravi had said the NSCN (IM) has “mischievously” dragged in the framework agreement and began imputing imaginary contents to it.
The framework agreement came after over 80 rounds of negotiations spanning 18 years, with the first breakthrough made in 1997 when the ceasefire agreement was sealed after decades of insurgency in Nagaland which started soon after India’s independence in 1947.