The ‘Framework agreement’ inked by the government of India and the NSCN-IM which is billed as ‘a positive development’ and ‘historic’ continues to lurk in the obscure imagination of the people though this agreement is said to have laid the broad contours under which a solution is to be hammered out.
Another sad thing is the manner in which some of the national media outlets are portraying the whole event as if the ‘agreement’ was a final pact to close the narrative of the Naga political movement. This is doing more harm than good. However, some of them are more lenient to the Nagas by terming it as ‘peace accord to end India’s longest insurgency.’ The government of India has termed it as ‘historic’. Nagaland chief minister T R Zeliang called it ‘a positive development’ while former chief minister and sitting Lok Sabha MP Neiphiu Rio has expressed confidence that it will bring a lasting peace. For the NSCN-IM it is something New Delhi has ‘demonstrated the desire for a lasting and honourable political solution of the issue.’Whatever may be the development, the Nagas are struck-numb by the August 3 event for the simple reason that not a hint of the content was revealed to the public. The Nagas do not know whether the ‘agreement’ was a boon or bane. As such, the Nagas are now guarded in their reactions for they have not seen the fine print of the agreement. Even the media editorials are trying to be positive about the whole affair but we have our limitations—we cannot afford to create chaos on this costly issue by giving comments from the angles of guessing and speculation. Our only advice to the authority is to make the content of the ‘framework agreement’ public to avoid complication.
In fact, on Monday evening most of the media houses were disappointed when the content of the agreement they were expecting was not made available for public consumption. Reasons, strategies and logics for not revealing the content will not serve their worth if things begin to take a different turn.
One thing we may ask—why the gala affair such as this had to be broadcast when the reason of doing so is not going to be revealed? It only provides rooms to the critics of the Naga peace process for their juicy harvest. History informs us that contents of any treaty were never concealed.
