All party delegation to meet HM Amit Shah on Naga political, Indo-Myanmar border issues

Kohima(The Uttam Hindu):  An all-party delegation led by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio would soon meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the decades-old Naga political issue and concerns about the border fencing and Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the India-Myanmar border, a minister said here on Sunday. A senior Nagaland minister said that in the last Assembly session (March 3 to 8), the Chief Minister had suggested that an all-party delegation would meet the Union Home Minister to apprise him about the contentious Naga Political issues, which always dominate politics in the state. “Chief Minister has already sought a suitable time from Home Minister regarding the all-party delegation meeting with him in New Delhi,” the minister said, refusing to be named.

He said that besides the Naga political issue, FMR and border fencing along the India-Myanmar border are the other vital issues to be discussed with the Union Home Minister. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last year announced that the FMR, which allows people residing along the India-Myanmar border to travel 16 km into each other’s territory without a visa, would be scrapped soon. Instead, the MHA decided to replace the FMR to adopt a new scheme to issue a pass to the border residents of both India and Myanmar living within 10 km on either side of the frontier to regulate cross-border movements.

The Nagaland Assembly on March 7 unanimously decided that an all-party delegation would meet the Union Home Minister to explain to him the “sentiment and resentment of the Naga people” against the MHA’s decision to cancel the FMR between India and Myanmar. Participating in the discussion on the issue, the Chief Minister had told the house that the border movement restriction would affect the long-standing historical, ethnic, social, cultural, traditional and economic ties of Nagas living on both sides of the India-Myanmar border. The delegation would apprise the Home Minister about the concerns and unanimity of the house, which adopted unanimous resolutions passed on March 1, 2024, and the state cabinet decisions of February 8, 2024, and January 6, 2025. The Nagaland and Mizoram governments and a large number of political parties and civil societies in the two northeastern states have been opposing both border fencing and the FMR.

Four northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram -- share a 1,643-km unfenced border with Myanmar. The MHA had earlier decided to erect fencing on the entire porous border, known for the smuggling of arms, ammunition, narcotics and various other contrabands, at a cost of Rs 31,000 crore. Meanwhile, officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the top leaders of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) held a meeting in Dimapur on February 21 and decided to hold fresh formal talks between the government and the dominant Naga group soon. According to a Nagaland government official, the MHA’s advisor, North East, A.K. Mishra, during his visit to Nagaland in February, held a meeting with NSCN-IM’s General Secretary and chief negotiator Thuingaleng Muivah and discussed various aspects of the Naga political issue.

“Both sides decided to hold formal talks at the earliest to take forward the long-pending Naga political issue,” the official had said on condition of anonymity. Mishra also held a meeting with the Working Committee of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) in Dimapur. The NNPGs, an alliance of seven other Naga groups, have been in talks with the Centre and signed an “Agreed Position” in 2017.