No final solution yet in sight !! Before LS polls ?
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: January 26 2019 -

Anytime soon-that is a final solution to the ongoing political dialogue between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) and the six NNPGs.

In fact so hyped had it become that many in Nagaland, including political parties, had at first proclaimed that what the people wanted was a solution before election and this call was rung out with vigour before Assembly elections in the neighbouring State in 2018.

That election was held before the final deal was inked is a different matter, but the natural question that follows is, now what ?

It is now nearly a year since the Assembly election was held in Nagaland but so far there has not been much of a significant indicator that a solution is at hand.

This obviously would not have gone down well with the people of Nagaland and the Nagas in the neighbouring States of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

It would also be interesting to question where the NSCN (IM) and the six NNPGs stand on this matter.

Two decades of ceasefire and political negotiation is indeed a long time.

A child born in 1997 (the year the ceasefire pact was signed) would today be a 22 year old youth.

And many university students from the North East would not even have been born when the truce pact was signed and the guns went silent.

This generation of youngsters will never know the days of the bush war that cadres of the NSCN (IM) and other Naga UG groups waged against the Indian military but this does not mean that they are in the dark about the ongoing political negotiation.

The need for a final settlement must have also become all that more pertinent, for remember the country will go in for Lok Sabha elections shortly.

And anything can happen in a Lok Sabha election.

It is also important to note that after the BJP led Government came to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the political negotiation with the NSCN (IM) appears to have been given more direction.

The Framework Agreement of 2015 added more to the expectations of a final pact.

This reality must have dawned on Delhi and the leadership of the NSCN (IM) and the Naga people and it will not be surprising if pressure is mounted on the Government of India to seal the final deal before the Lok Sabha election.

No one can predict the outcome of the coming Lok Sabha election, but what the NSCN (IM) and the Naga people would not want is a change in guard at New Delhi before the final pact is signed, for a change in Government could set back the ongoing peace process by some years.

This is something which the NSCN (IM) will not want.

Remember Isak Chisi Swu of the IM is no more and today only the M stands in the personality of Thuingaleng Muivah.

All the more reason why the need for a final pact may be felt more.

Not yet clear how New Delhi will respond if such a pressure is mounted, but as noted earlier, it will not be surprising if such a pressure is mounted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has managed to instil hope and aspirations by giving a new thrust to the ongoing peace process and it remains to be seen whether he manages to live up to the hope of the Naga people and work out a solution before the Lok Sabha election.