Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday expressed “surprise” over the delay in implementation of the 2015 Framework Agreement, signed between the BJP-led Centre and the NSCN (IM), to end the decades-old Naga insurgency.
Kumar was on a whirlwind visit to Dimapur, the commercial capital of poll-bound Nagaland, on Tuesday afternoon, to pay homage to noted freedom fighter and socialist Jayaprakash Narayan on his 120th birth anniversary.
Nitish took a dig at the Centre by flagging the issue of the Framework Agreement not making headway even after seven years.
Kumar said: “We were happy when the agreement was signed... People of Nagaland were also very happy…. But we have come to know it (agreement) has not been implemented. We are surprised…. Why it has not been implemented when it was signed in the presence of the prime minister?”
He added: “It is our demand that it (agreement) be implemented immediately. Why this delay when people supported you…. This is not a good thing (the delay) .… Don’t know why the people at the Centre are doing this. The Central government should resolve the Naga issue peacefully. You all be alert.”
Extending his support to the immediate and peaceful resolution of the Naga issue, Kumar said they would continue to support the Naga cause. “We will continue to support you, raise your issue not only in Bihar but wherever we go. We will inform the people that the Centre had signed an agreement but it has not yet been implemented,” Kumar said, recalling the contributions of JP, who had stayed in Nagaland for three years from 1964 working for the cause of peace and brotherhood in Nagaland.
Nagaland JD(U) unit chief Senchumo Nsn Lotha and JD(U) Northeast in-charge Afaque Ahmed Khan told The Telegraph that the “apolitical” meeting to honour the memory of JP, his contributions to nation-building and the peace efforts in Nagaland for three years from 1964 as part of a peace mission, and his ties with the people of Nagaland, was “hugely successful”.
Thanking the state unit and the people of Nagaland for the success of the meeting, Khan said the Bihar chief minister, like a true disciple of JP, was only following the latter’s footsteps by trying to establish peace in Nagaland and “selflessly” trying to unite the Opposition. Several JD(U) MPs and Bihar ministers were present at the meeting in Dimapur.
Nagaland has an Opposition-less government led by the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) of which the BJP is a leading constituent.
The Bihar chief minister has been trying to forge Opposition unity against the BJP before the2024 general elections just after snapping ties with the BJP in August. Both the JD(U) and the BJP were running a coalition government in Bihar before parting ways.
The BJP has also been attacking Kumar for “siding” with the Congress whom JP opposed and “sacrificing” JP socialist ideology.
Modi was present during the signing of the “historic” Framework Agreement between the Centre and Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland NSCN (I-M) on the Naga political issue to “end the oldest insurgency in the country”.
The NSCN(IM) has reiterated that the Framework agreement was the “only acceptable basis” to resolve the Naga political issue but the process have got stuck over the NSCN(IM) firm stand for a separate flag and constitution because the “Naga national flag and the Naga constitution that represents the Naga political entity as a nation”.
The Centre is opposed to the demands due to, what most feel, was the 2019 scrapping of the Article 370, which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir which had a separate flag and the Constitution. These don’t exist after the scrapping of the Act.
Talks, however, resumed last month to break the deadlock.
The Centre’s interlocutor for Naga Peace talks R.N. Ravi, had signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of India and NSCN(IM) leaders Isak Chishi Swu, chairman, and Th. Muivah, general secretary, were the signatories on behalf of the NSCN. Swu has since passed away.