DIMAPUR, APRIL 29 (MExN): The United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA) today asked the Government of India to be “extremely cautious in allowing its functionaries to express their so called ‘tangible’ solutions on the ongoing Indo-Naga political talk.”
A press note from the UNTABA said that time and again, the GoI has uttered “intangible statements on the status of the ongoing Indo-Naga political talks completely disregarding the basic political foundation made between the GoI and the Naga political groups on August 3, 2015 with NSCN (IM) and again on November 17, 2017 with the Working Group of the 6 NNPGs.”
These statements, the UNTABA stated have come from the Home Minister Rajnath Singh; Minister of State Kiren Rijiju, the Interlocutor to the Naga talks RN Ravi and Secretaries in the Home Ministry.
“The fact of the Naga political issue is the inalienable rights of the Naga people over its lands unilaterally allowed to be occupied by Assam by the GoI in spite of political agreements made with the Naga people…” the association said. These agreements, it stated, envisage the right to transfer back all the Naga traditional and ancestral lands under “illegal occupation” of Assam to Naga people roughly covering an area of 4974.16 square miles.
“This is the crux of the matter of the emergence of Naga political struggle,” the UNTABA stated, while maintaining that the negotiating parties "are well aware of the fact that unless the crux of the issue is settled in its right perspective, it may be speculated that the land between Brahmaputra valley and the Naga country may become a new ‘Middle-East’ between the Indian sub-continent and south-east Asian sub-continent,” the UNTABA cautioned.
Asserting that the ongoing political talk is between the Naga people and the GoI the association said “this fact has to be underscored by the powers that be in Manipur, Arunachal and Assam.”
