NSCN-IM again urges Centre to recognise Naga flag, constitution

Kohima, April 15 (IANS) Two days after its meeting with Government of India envoy A.K. Mishra, the dominant Naga outfit NSCN-IM on Saturday urged the Centre to "honor and implement in letter and spirit the Framework Agreement (FA) and recognise the Naga national flag and constitution".

The NSCN-IM said that the Naga flag is the identity of Naga nationhood and doesn't have different meanings as mentioned by the Naga-American Council's recent statement.

"Such bewildering understanding of the flag with respect to the Naga flag is highly regretted. We understand that the Naga-American Council must have given their interpretation of the flag from an American context, and not from the Naga context," the NSCN-IM said in a statement.

It said that the Washington-based Naga-American Council is one such organisation that has shown keen interest in Naga political settlement affairs.

The Framework Agreement, signed on August 3, 2015, between the Central government and the NSCN-IM, recognises the Indo-Naga conflict as political.

It also acknowledges the unique history and position of the Nagas and the FA is signed on the cornerstone of sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Centre's representative Mishra, a retired Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer, held separate meetings with a high-level 20-member delegation of the NSCN-IM led by its Secretary General Thuingaleng Muivah and the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) on April 13 at the Chumoukedima police complex in Dimapur.

NSCN-IM leader Rh Raising Thangkul had said after the meeting that they have reiterated to solve the Naga political issue on the basis of the Framework Agreement.

In the Dimapur meetings, Mishra was accompanied by Intelligence Bureau joint director Mandeep Singh Tulli and Nagaland's intelligence officer Don Jose.

The Centre has been in talks with the NNPGs since 2017.

Four influential Naga organisations, including the powerful Naga Hoho and the Naga Mothers' Association, had last week urged the Centre to honour its word in the Ceasefire Agreement (1997) and Framework Agreement (2015) and "resolve the Naga political impasse accordingly".

The Centre has been holding separate negotiations with the dominant Naga outfit NSCN-IM since 1997 as well as the the NNPGs, comprising at least seven groups, since 2017.

A Framework Agreement was signed with the NSCN-IM in 2015 and an Agreed Position with the NNPGs in 2017.

The stalemate continued as the NSCN-IM remained firm on its demand for a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas.