Final pact yet to see light of day :: First week of 2018
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 08 2018 -

2018 is now on us. In fact it is already one week into the new year, leaving many to wonder how long it will take for the final pact between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India to see the light of day.

This poser is important in the face of the fact that there were calls from some quarters urging that the final pact be signed as a Christmas gift for the Naga people.

Moreover there have also been calls from other quarters to ink the final pact before Nagaland goes anytime in the early part of this year.

The interesting question is, when will the final pact be signed and will it affect the neighbouring States, given the fact that the NSCN (IM) and many Naga civil society organisations have been proclaiming loud and clear that the Naga people and the land cannot be separated.

On the other hand, there have been movements in the neighbouring States, particularly Manipur and Assam, that any deal between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India should not impinge upon the existence of these States as political entities.

The assurance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to representatives of civil society organisations from Manipur that no one sided decision will be taken to come to the final pact with the NSCN (IM), must have sounded assuring to the people of the neighbouring States, but yet the fact remains that details of the Framework Agreement inked in 2015, according to which the final pact will be inked, are yet to be spelt out. Solid assurance and keeping an agreement, on which basis the final pact will be signed, under such a veil of secrecy can make a potent combination for giving birth to more suspicion.

And it is this air of uncertainty which the Congress is bent on riding.

Already a series of public meetings have been held sensitising the people to the fact that while the final pact may not infringe on the territorial integrity of the State, the seeds of disintegration may be sown.

These seeds may be sown in different ways and it is this which have been highlighted in all the series of meetings held so far.

As pointed out earlier in this column, it will not make much sense to demand that the NPF makes its stand public at this moment, for everyone knows what its stand on Naga integration is.

Embarrassing the BJP for supping with the NPF is one thing, but demanding that the NPF makes its stand public will cut no ice and one just has to remember the line of campaigning that the NPF took up in all the Assembly elections held in Manipur, particularly in the 2012 Assembly election when Nephiu Rio turned out to be the star campaigner for the party, particularly in the Naga dominated districts.

This however is not to say that the other political parties should keep quiet for one here is talking about the existence of Manipur as a geo-political entity.

Take away the hills and Manipur will not be the Manipur that history knows.

This is a point which should not be lost on anyone, particularly on the top leaders of the BJP.