A day after the Centre resumed talks with rebel group Nazi Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN I-M), former Nagaland Governor RN Ravi today resigned as its interlocutor for the negotiations. This makes way for the govt to appoint his replacement and resolve a problem that had become a humiliation for it.
Mr Ravi was transferred as province governor nearly period of time ago but had not resigned as interlocutor.
Talks between NSCN (IM) and therefore the Centre, meanwhile, resumed yesterday in Dimapur, led by former Intelligence Bureau (IB) Special Director Akshaya Kumar Mishra. Since his retirement in April 2021, he has been playing the role of advisor to the Union Home Ministry on matters associated with India’s northeast.
Mr Ravi failed to attend yesterday’s meeting.
Sources indicate that Mr Mishra’s name are going to be announced by the ministry because the new interlocutor. Indications are that IB Director Arvind Kumar might also join him as a further interlocutor.
Mr Mishra could be a 1987 batch former IPS officer of the Rajasthan cadre.
“He (Mr Mishra) has been managing the NSCN after relations between the NSCN’s Thuingaleng Muivah and Mr Ravi deteriorated,” a senior ministry official explained.
It is because of Mr Mishra’s efforts that the ministry has, within the past number of months, been ready to sign a peace pact with the NSCN and an accord with five armed groups based in Assam’s Karbi-Anglong district.
“These are big achievements for the ministry and that we hope that the stand-off between the Centre and therefore the Naga insurgent groups gets dissolved, too,” another senior official divulged.
The last formal talks between the NSCN (IM) and Mr Ravi came about in January 2020. Following that, the 2 sides met informally in national capital last August.
The talks saw trouble after Mr Ravi allegedly circulated a “doctored” version of the framework agreement signed in 2015 between Issak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah, and him within the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
There were also bitter exchanges between Mr Ravi and therefore the NSCN (IM). Home Minister Shah then deputed Himanta Biswa Sarma, then the Assam minister, together with Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and a Naga social activist, to satisfy Mr Muivah in Delhi to know their grievances.
Mr Ravi was made Nagaland Governor in 2019 despite, in line with sources, opposition from the NSCN (IM).
