UNC serves February 17 deadline to GoI

Imphal, Jan 28: United Naga Council (UNC) has given February 17 as deadline to the Government of India for initiating the 5th round of 'tripartite talks' and warned of taking up its own course of agitation.

In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today, the UNC said, "We refer to our memorandum of November 27, 2012 jointly signed by the United Naga Council (UNC) and 22 other Naga frontal organisations and constituent tribe units urging your good office for an early and honourable settlement of the Indo-Naga political issue based on the recognition of the “unique history and situation of the Nagas. We had also expressed therein, our concern about the postures being adopted by certain groups without any historical or political basis in connivance with the communal government of Manipur with the intention of disturbing the Indo-Naga peace process and had urged against taking cognizance of such frivolous postulation," the UNC reminded.

The UNC memorandum maintained, “we live in the present state of Manipur in a communally surcharged environment which is worsening by the day. Nagas have been exercising outmost restraint and the 72 hours bandh in Naga areas from the midnight of December 26, 2012 to the midnight of December 29, 2012 was observed largely on precautionary considerations to prevent any untoward incident in Naga areas given the assaults, taunting, humiliations and torturous hardship systematically inflicted upon Nagas in Imphal during the Christmas eve."

The UNC then reiterated that Nagas are not communal and claimed that theirs is a political issue.
"What we do not wish for is for any communal conflagration to take place because of the inability on the part of the GoM and the communal forces to accept the inevitable and the logical conclusion of the Naga peoples’ movement for their political aspirations rooted in their history and situation. What we wish for is the peaceful parting of ways and the securing of good neighbourliness for all times to come," the UNC memorandum said.

The UNC also said its concern is that the settlement of the Indo-Naga issue is being delayed even after more than 15 years of negotiation by the GoI, which seems to be subjecting the process to the approval of a state of the Union which is not a party to the process. The delay is enthusing the government of Manipur that informs its decisions and policies to adopt more communal strategies.

It then said the UNC concerns that the government of India, notwithstanding the above memorandum under reference and the foregoing, have not intervened to prevent a full scale communal conflict, which is clearly inevitable should the forced and undesirable union be allowed to fester deeper. The government of India would therefore be responsible for any unfortunate turn of events arising out of this situation, it added.
"However, we still retain our faith in the principles of democracy and fervently urge the GoI to take up the demand for an alternative arrangement for the Nagas in Manipur outside the government of Manipur pending settlement of the Indo-Naga issue in all seriousness and sense of urgency," the UNC stated.

It then said the 4th round of tripartite talk of the government of India, government of Manipur and the UNC on our demand for an alternative arrangement at Delhi on August 31, 2012 had concluded with a pronouncement by the government of India that the next round of talk would be held very soon in a hill venue in the state of Manipur.