Dimapur, August 1 (MExN): The newly-appointed “Longvibu” of the NSCN (IM) Eastern Flank, Lieutenant General A Raman has accused the Government of India of reneging on the 2015 Framework Agreement and declared that the “spirit” of the ceasefire had effectively lapsed.
Delivering his first address after taking charge as “Longvibu” (commander-in-chief) of the Naga Army at a felicitation programme in Mt Horeb Camp on July 29, Lt Gen A Raman said the ceasefire “has ceased to exist” since the GoI issued what he called a three-month ultimatum between August and October 2019, ruling out a separate flag and constitution for the Nagas.
“The Government of India (GoI) has betrayed the Framework Agreement of August 3, 2015... it has imposed its might to suppress our rights,” he said, adding that the Indo-Naga talks had “dragged on for more than 28 years” without delivering justice to the Naga people.
He noted that when the peaceful political dialogue is subjected to force and might rather than justice and trust, the “revolutionary patriots must rise up to continue the political as well as violent armed resistance to safeguard the sovereign existence of the Naga nation.” He added, “We have to be ever guarded, for the destiny of the nation is yet to be reached.”
On the “assassination” of Tirong Aboh, who was killed along with several others in an ambush in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tirap district in 2019, A Raman said the order had come “directly from the then Longvibu, Gen Anthony Ningkhan Shimray.” He alleged that Shimray subsequently “chose to place the blame solely on those compliant soldiers” instead of owning the decision, adding that “the integrity of the formation and the chain of command in the Naga Army has been in question ever since.”
He also turned his criticism inward, accusing unnamed Naga groups of colluding with “adversaries” to settle the Naga political issue “within the Union and Constitution of India” and of working to “destroy the last bastion of Naga nationalism.” He questioned whether such groups were “certain” the Eastern Flank was working against Naga interests, or were “knowingly trying to suppress” those “standing for the national cause.”
He called on the “Brave soldiers and beloved Nagas” not be discouraged by the might of “adversaries.”
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