NEW DELHI, Sept 16 : With an aim to resume peace talks with Naga leaders, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is all set to appoint a new interlocutor very soon.
The present interlocutor R.N. Ravi, who was also the Governor of Nagaland, was shifted to Tamil Nadu last week. The Ministry has zeroed in on the name of the former Special Director of Intelligence Bureau Akshaya Kumar Mishra as a new interlocutor and soon the notification will be issued, sources said.
Mishra, a retired IPS officer of 1987 batch of the Rajasthan cadre is said to be a pick of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for this important assignment, sources also said.
He was made Advisor to the Home Minister after his superannuation in April this year. Mishra is said to have played a significant role in signing a peace accord with the militant groups based in Assam’s Karbi-Anglong district and ceasefire agreement with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)(K) Niki group, another source in the security set up said.
The Naga peace talk has been virtually stalled as Ravi has not met any leader of any faction of the Naga rebel group since long and recently his comment on the Independence Day speech on August 15, 2021, was not appreciated by the political groups of the state, they added.
The huge trust deficit between Ravi and the Naga groups has led to his exit from the state as he was in cross swords with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak- Muivah) for the last two years.
In fact the Naga Peace talks began to derail in early 2020 when the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-(Isak Muivah) (NSCN-IM) leader T. Muivah refused to hold any dialogue with interlocutor and Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi following a dispute on the framework of the agreement signed in 2015.
Ravi, an IPS officer of 1976 batch from Kerala cadre, who had retired as the Special Director in Intelligence Bureau in 2012, was appointed as the government interlocutor on the Naga peace talks in 2014. In 2015, he signed a framework agreement with the NSCN-IM on behalf of the Centre on August 3, 2015, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and later in 2019 he was made the Governor along with his interlocutor’s responsibility.
He, according to the source, was made Nagaland Governor in 2019 despite opposition from the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN I-M), the key rebel group that the government has been talking to.