Five of the six Naga insurgent groups, currently in a peace talk with the Union government, have said that the Centre has disapproved the idea of unification of Naga dominated area of Northeast along with the Nagaland to create a greater Nagaland.
The government has also refused to grant financial autonomy to the Naga insurgent groups. It had earlier refused the sovereignty demands of the groups as well.
Alezo Venuh, emissary of the collective leadership of five insurgent groups, told THE WEEK, "Apart from the sovereignty issue, the Indian government has also refused to include Naga dominated areas to create a special Naga state."
Asked whether the outfits have been able to reach any kind of agreement on getting the financial status for the Nagaland, Venu said, "Union government has clearly ruled out that."
Venuh is the leader of the NSCN (U), which is along with NSCN (KK), NSCN (R), NSCN (NNPG) and NSCN (KN), had on November 17, 2017, joined the peace talk with the Union government. The conglomerate of five organisation, however, did not join the talks with NSCN (IM), the biggest insurgent group in Northeast, which has been in talks with Centre for last 22 years. The five groups running a parallel talks with interlocutor R.N. Ravi.
With no major demands met, sources said Nagas are all set to get a Mizoram type of solutions, where major Naga customs would be part of the legislative law in the state, recognising the history of the community having 16 tribes. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had entered into a ceasefire and peace deal with Mizo insurgents, led by Laldenga, after agreeing to include local customs of Mizoram as part of state law.
Venuh neither refused nor accepted such possibilities.
"In fact one of the conditions in the peace treaty has been that we would not disclose the details of the talks. So our hands are tied," he said.
One of the reasons for the central government not accepting a special Naga state, curving out all Naga dominated areas in Northeast, would be a possible unrest in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
In Manipur, BJP runs a coalition government with Naga People's Front. In Arunachal Pradesh, a dissection would have international implication as it's a "disputed" territory.
One of the major reasons behind the stalemate situation of peace talks is that the Narendra Modi government has objected to the manner in which insurgent groups are extorting, in the name of taxes, the common people. THE WEEK, in its latest issue, has brought out an investigative report on how major insurgent groups are extorting around 30 lakh Naga people spreading in Nagaland and three other states—Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. While government has launched action against the NSCN (K), which is yet to come to talk table, it has given an ultimatum to other groups to end such extortion rackets across the Northeast.
Different civil societies and Christian organisations are making efforts to end the extortion activities, by bringing all such groups together.
In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, Isak Sumi, deputy defence minister of the NSCN (K) government in Myanmar, said, "We welcome the effort of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) and others to bring a single tax regime. But we will not enter into any talk by abandoning our demand of sovereignty for Naga people."
Reverend Wati Aier, convener of FNR, who is in talk with NSCN (K), said, "Our attempt to bring all such groups under one umbrella does not mean that we would like to help government of India in peace talks. Our effort has got nothing to do with the peace talks done by government of India with a few groups."
Rev Aier also refused to call the heavy taxation imposed by the insurgent groups as extortion.
"I think it would be harsh to call such taxes as extortion. The groups are fighting for greater Naga cause. We would have to accept the fact that they need money to do that," said he.