"India can't have two PMs, two constitutions and two flags" - Amit Shah

Nirendra Dev *

The message is certainly for across the country -- from Kashmir to Kohima. Yet another time -- firm assertion ---- "India as a country can never have two Prime Ministers, two constitutions and two flags" - Amit Shah said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday (05 December 2023).

“We had been saying since 1950 that a country should have only one PM, one flag and one Constitution and not two and we have done it (removed the error)," the Home Minister said in Lok Sabha in no uncertain terms.

Making a brief intervention in the Lower House of Parliament on Dec 5th, Shah said certain remarks from Trinamool Congress MP, Saugata Roy vis-a-vis Jammu and Kashmir was “objectionable”. Shah said, “Whosoever did it (two flags etc) was wrong. Narendra Modi has corrected it. Your approval or disagreement do not matter. The entire country wanted it.”

This comment was made in reference to the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. The House was debating the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill.

At one point, Union Commerce minister Piyush Goyal said while the Trinamool member Roy mentioned Late Syama Prasad Mukherjee, he should have also recalled his "sacrifice". Mukherjee was a pioneer in the nationwide movement against two flags and two constitutions for J&K and also against Article 370.

The Modi government in its second stint on Aug 5, 2019, had abrogated the controversial Article and it also marked fulfillment of a major BJP commitment to the electorate of this country.

The Naga peace talks that made significant progress under the Modi government now virtually stand stalled since October 2019 as there is a deadlock over the demands for a separate Naga flag and constitution from the NSCN-IM. The centre has more than once rejected the demand.

Countering Saugata Roy, the Home Minister asserted that Syama Prasad Mukherjee's statement “one symbol, one head, one Constitution” was not a mere election slogan. Roy had said -- “ek nishan, ek pradhan, ek samvidhan (one flag, one head, one Constitution)” was a “political slogan” and this provoked the senior BJP leader.

The statement has a significance as the Home Minister's remarks makes it clear that the Modi government has 'ensured' that the country will now have only one flag and one Constitution. Shah also told Roy that perhaps age was catching up with him.

Shah asserted that the concept of “one flag, one prime minister, one Constitution” was not a political slogan and the BJP firmly believed in the principle and finally implemented it with regard to Jammu and Kashmir.

Recently, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, who heads the NDPP-BJP regime since 2018, admitted that there is "deadlock" in Naga peace parleys.

Notably, a section of political leaders in Nagaland had earlier in 2021 claimed that 'removal' of R N Ravi was an 'achievement' and was in the process of putting the Naga peace talks that began in 1997 on the fast track.

The reality is however different. Ravi had touched the raw nerve in Nagaland's socio-political contexts when he raised the bogey of extortion.

Last month former Nagaland Assembly Speaker, Z Lohe, has made a veiled attack on the Neiphiu Rio-led NDPP-BJP government and especially the Chief Minister when he said, "Those who were responsible for the removal of the Interlocutor Mr. RN Ravi are indeed solely responsible for the delay of the Naga political solution".

In an article Lohe said, "Ravi's removal (as Governor of Nagaland and interlocutor) became the greatest setback for a timely solution" to the oldest insurgency problem in the northeast.

The Modi government has come under intense pressure from multiple quarters for expediting the peace talks with the Naga rebel groups - NSCN(IM) on one hand and the NNPG on the other hand. Led by N Kitovi Zhimomi, the NNPG is not against signing of a peace pact at the earliest and they have counseled taking up a more pragmatic path vis-a-vis controversial issues and demands.

"Emotive issues such as the flag and (Naga) constitution are mere pretext to hoodwink the Nagas. In other words, there was, and is, never a real intent to bring honourable political solutions to the Naga people," stated the umbrella organisation NNPG of Naga militant groups.

Former Nagaland CM and ex-Governor Gujarat, S C Jamir in a letter to PM Modi on Dec 3 congratulated the latter for BJP's spectacular win in key states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. He also urged Mr Modi to take a final call on the Naga issue "before your (PM's) second term ends -- in fact in next two months".

"As someone who joined Naga politics decades back and as someone who has seen so many ups and downs; I am assuring you, in all my sincerity, your name will be recorded in golden letters in Naga history if a peace pact is inked now," Jamir wrote.

Nagaland Governor La Ganesan in his pre-statehood day message on Nov 30, 2023, also made an interesting observation when he said, "unemployment, the quest for enduring peace, equitable growth, and rapid advancement are the battles we continue to fight".