Centre Invites NSCN-IM To Delhi For Talks In October 1st Week: Sources

The Centre has invited leaders of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN-IM, to Delhi to resume talks on the Naga political issue during the first week of October, sources said today.

The Union government asked the Naga outfit's leaders to visit Delhi as the talks had stalled for quite some time, NSCN(IM) sources said.

On September 12, a consultative meeting called by the Nagaland home department in the state capital Kohima had discussed the long-pending Naga political issue.

It had demanded the appointment of a new ministerial-level interlocutor to take the talks forward with all the Naga groups.

The NSCN(IM) sources declined to comment on the issue of asking for a new interlocutor, adding the matter is under discussion.

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AK Mishra, a former Indian Police Service officer who specialised in northeast affairs in the Intelligence Bureau, is the interlocutor at present. He replaced former Nagaland Governor RN Ravi as the government's negotiator in October 2021.

Among the many issues that Mr Ravi and the NSCN(IM) had crossed swords was a request to the insurgent group not to collect "tax" from businesses in Nagaland, which the Centre considered to be a form of extortionist appropriation that undermined the sovereign right of the state.

The NSCN(IM) is firm to stand by the 2015 Naga Peace Accord for an early, honourable and acceptable solution to end insurgency in Nagaland, sources have said.

The peace talks between the Centre and the largest insurgent group in the northeast, which signed a ceasefire agreement in 1997, however, remain inconclusive.