india

Updated: Nov 01, 2019 06:32 IST

The government on Thursday denied that it had sealed a peace deal with Naga rebels to end the world’s oldest surviving insurgency. The Union home ministry said the talks with Naga insurgent groups were yet to be concluded and that it will consult all stakeholders in the region, including the states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, before a peace agreement is inked.

Soon after the Narendra Modi government was sworn in for a second term after the April-May general elections, it set an October 31, 2019 deadline for the conclusion of the Naga peace talks.

In a statement, the home ministry said that “it has come to the government’s notice that a lot of rumours and misinformation is being spread in the media including social media that the final Naga settlement has been arrived at and will be announced soon”.

Such reports, the MHA said, were giving rise to “anxiety and concern in some parts of the country. It is clarified that before any settlement is arrived at with Naga groups, all stakeholders including states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh will be duly consulted and their concerns will be taken into consideration.”

“No credence needs to be given to such rumours and incorrect information,” the statement added.

The central government has already rejected demands by the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) for integration of Naga-inhabited areas located in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam with Nagaland and a separate flag and constitution for the state .

On Thursday, normal life was paralysed in many parts of Manipur due to a “cease work” stir to press demands that the state’s territorial integrity and administrative set-up should not be affected by the Naga peace talks.

Talks to find a lasting solution to the seven-decade-old insurgency in Nagaland continued for the forth consecutive day on Thursday, with the Centre’s interlocutor and Nagaland governor R N Ravi holding discussions with the NSCN-IM for more than three hours, officials said.

While the dialogue with the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG),a consortium of seven parties, is said to be over, talks with the NSCN-IM, one of the main insurgent groups in the Northeast, have centred on its demands for a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas.

Ravi, in a statement last week, said that a mutually agreed draft comprehensive settlement, including all the substantive issues, was ready for signing.

“Unfortunately at this auspicious juncture, the NSCN-IM has adopted a procrastinating attitude to delay the settlement, raising the contentious symbolic issues of separate Naga national flag and Constitution on which they are fully aware of Government of India’s position,” he said.

Ravi’s statement assumed significance in the backdrop of the Centre’s August 5 announcement nullifying the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.