The Wrong Man
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 12, 2014 -

The displeasure of Naga Hoho over the decision of the Narendra Modi Government to appoint former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau RN Ravi as the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and the Centre's new Interlocutor for talks with Naga underground groups including the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) is understandable.

Though described as a 'Northeast expert' who has represented Government of India in the negotiating table with the Naga underground organizations, it is a well known fact that this retired 1976 batch Kerala cadre IPS officer has been rather outspoken against NSCN-IM in his approach to the decades old peace process, which has find no favour among the Naga frontal organizations including the apex Naga body.

As recent as January 23, 2014, RN Ravi came up with an explosion article on the National daily The Hindu, wherein he called NSCN-IM has a militia group predominantly of the Tangkhul tribe of Manipur and described the 'ceasefire' between the Government of India and the Naga rebel group as a 'reckless' one which only pushes the Nagas into a state of civil war while the two protagonists of the ceasefire, that is the Government of India and the NSCN-IM, are in mutual comfort capering about the mulberry bush without a stopwatch for the last 17 years.

Apart from claiming that more Nagas have been killed in fratricidal violence since the beginning of the ceasefire (1997-2013) than during the period preceding the ceasefire from 1980-1996, RN Ravi had even dared to explain the term 'Naga' as a rubric for a host of over 25 distinct tribes inhabiting the Nagaland State and adjoining areas of north-eastern India and Myanmar with their mutual differences far outnumbering their commonness and a past marred by bloodshed.

Though the facts and figures presented in the article may be arguable at times, it is but natural for the Naga Hoho or for that matter any other Naga groups which have been looking forward to the solution to the protracted peace talks between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM to cry foul against the decision of the Narendra Modi Government to hand over the charges of not only the Chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which is to function under the National Security Council Secretariat in collating intelligence reports from IB, RAW and other defense intelligence agencies and prepare net assessments for the Government, but also to the post of Central interlocutor for the peace talks to an individual, who seems to have already personalized the policy and the approach of the Government of India towards the protracted peace process with the Naga underground organizations.