KOHIMA, June 13 – The NSCN(K) has said that the Naga Hoho and other NGOs had been making efforts to foster peace between the two NSCNs since 1997, but without success, reports NEPS. Surprisingly, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had reposed his trust on the Hoho and other NGOs and was using them as a “vehicle of peace”, a serious miscalculation that led to derailment of the ongoing peace process, Kughalu Mulatonu, kilonser (minister) of the NSCN(K) told NEPS over phone on Friday on his return from Delhi.
“Rio must understand that Indo-Naga political settlement cannot be brought about with the aeroplane tickets of the NGOs from Nagaland to Delhi,” the NSCN (K) leader said adding, “it is only the parties involved in the political process that have the legitimacy to settle but not onlookers (NGOs).”
Mulatonu also stated that these failed Hoho and NGOs didn’t know how the process of political settlement was carried out. After failing in their mission to establish peace between the two NSCNs since 1997, they had no other “fresh agenda” except to say “peace should be in the North- east and peace should be in Nagaland,” he added.
He said it was only a political settlement that could bring peace to the “Nagas and the entire India” but peace itself could not install “political settlement.” In any issue where there is no settlement (political), there is no permanent peace, the NSCN (K) leader asserted. Mulatonu also disclosed that Chief Minister Rio may strike an deal with RJD, an ally of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre, to get uniformity with the Congress. He, however, cautioned that once the Congress was dethroned in Delhi, “Rio may bunk off the Congress and join the BJP as he did before.”
The NSCN (K) leader, who was recently in Delhi to assess the latest political development following installation of the new Congress-led UPA government, also expressed disappointment at the failure of the Government of India to keep a separate Home Secretary for the North-east. Stating that such an attitude on the part of the Government of India amounted to negligence to ensure a political settlement, Mulatonu asked how they (Government of India) could solve the problem without keeping a separate home secretary for the North-east.