Minister for Power and Nagaland Government Spokesperson K G Kenye on Tuesday said negotiations between Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) and the Government of India (GoI) have to be transparent and no secret deals should be made behind its back. The state government has not stood in the way of the people’s desire of the East, he added.
Reasoning the above statement, Kenye asserted that while the rest of Nagaland has its best wishes and fullest support for creation of such a new entity, it cannot leave the rest of the state and its people to linger in uncertainties. He maintained that there will be consequences when a portion of Nagaland and people are sliced out from the present-day state.
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So, it is from this angle that the others also and the state government also has stepped in to check how things are going and to what extent it has reached, said the Minister.
“The MHA and the ENPO both actually are at fault for sidelining and keeping the GoN and the rest of the people of Nagaland in the dark. Nobody is against but everyone is just concern about the type of arrangements, divisions of power, the structures, the status it will be given, the nomenclature etc,” added Kenye.
Recalling that in 2011 the state had recommended to the GoI that such an entity can be arranged for the Eastern part of Nagaland, if properly negotiated and agreed by all, Kenye said that the government has never been averse to ENPO’s demand or its movement. He however said, over time people in the other parts of the state have become anxious of what is going on and viewed that every responsible and enlighten citizen of this state deserves to know what is happening in any part of the state.
Mentioning that there is no reason why the state government should not be taken into confidence while negotiations are on for a part of this state, Kenye said that the government has stepped up its participation and has tried to study the status of the talks with ENPO to what extent they have reach.
Kenye said that the State has ascertained from the highest authorities who are directly handling this issue that negotiations are nearing to end although it is not in the final stage in fact, the final stage is just about to begin.
“So, here the period of conceptualizing the entire approach, the structure, the status is about to begin, and this is the intervention we have made and from here on whatever might have been before, from here on, it will be a tripartite kind of negotiations,” he said.
He informed that more or less all nitty gritty and other things have been discussed which might not be too necessary for the Centre or the state to be involved however, there are many which has to be filtered and screened out and only the issues which really matters will now form the basis of the talks in our approach towards a final agreement.
Further, he informed that the Nomenclature and status have not been finalised however, he opined that the Nomenclature should comprise of ‘Nagaland’ and not ‘Naga’.
“We will put in our heads together what they have discussed over the years and what they have brought out as the main points, we will figure in our discussions, and we will streamline our approach to find a final tripartite agreement,” added Kenye.
