New Delhi: The Central government if India and Naga armed groups are said to have finalised the substantive portions of the mutual accord. A report in the Indian Express notes that the accord is likely to be signed before the monsoon session of Parliament.
“The final draft of the accord, which hopes to finally bring India’s oldest insurgency to a close, is now looking to jump the final hurdle: an agreement over the Naga demand for a separate flag for the state. The government is also apprehensive about a violent reaction in the Manipur Valley to the signing of the accord”, notes the Indian Express.
The report notes that the accord does not change the boundary of states; provides autonomous Naga territorial councils for Arunachal and Manipur; a common cultural body for Nagas across states; specific institutions for state’s development, integration and rehabilitation of non-state Naga militia and the removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
The report quotes undisclosed sources saying that one issue still being negotiated (related to separate flag) is a “symbolic one” and “the Centre has, however, made it clear to the Naga groups that it will not be able to concede that demand in the ‘peace’ accord”.