In the context of recent developments in Nagaland, the statement of NSCN (I-M) general secretary T. N. Muivah, on the occasion of the ‘Republic Day’ of the rebel outfit, calling Nagas to be “prepared for any eventuality,” assumes added significance. He says that the peace talks with the Centre have not progressed according to expectations in the past 10 years when the UPA government was at the Centre. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, too, has gone on record in the State Assembly and asserted in an earlier news conference in Shillong that there has been no reply from the Centre on the proposal for alternative arrangements and the efforts of the Joint Legislature Forum have not borne fruit.
While the talks have stagnated, the killing graph has shot up in the past two years. According to figures in a well-known portal on militancy in South East Asia, the total killings were 61 in 2012 and 32 in 2013, the casualties being civilians and militants. Thus the Nagas themselves have suffered the most from factional feuds. Incidents like the showdown last December between the inmates of a designated camp of NSCN(I-M) and residents of Zunheboto town are detrimental to the greater Naga cause which the NSCN(I-M) champions. The stand of the Action Committee on Unabated Taxation, too, may be embarrassing for rebel groups of different hues.
Delhi may have missed a bus when the situation was ripe for a settlement in 2009 and 2010 when, thanks to the efforts of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, there was a semblance of unity among different Naga rebel groups, as indicated by the number of killings, 18 in 2009 and three in 2010, as against 145 in 2008. If it is the policy of the Centre to tire the leaderships of the rebel groups out, it is a cynical one, as common people in Nagaland bear the brunt of the prevailing situation. The resignation of government interlocutor R. S. Pandey has delayed matters further. Now, however, the initiative would pass on to the government to be formed in Delhi to take the talks forward. Pandey has joined the BJP, which has promised to Rio to settle the Naga issue if it forms the government. Rio, too, is contesting the election and may play the role of a catalyst in Delhi if voted as an M.P.