Transferred out of Nagaland : Posers on the Interlocutor
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 17, 2021 -

This is getting interesting. The natural questions that will follow can also be interesting.

RN Ravi has been removed or rather transferred from Nagaland to Tamil Nadu but holding the same position as Governor.

Nothing out of routine here, for this is not the first time that a Governor has been moved out from one State and taken to another State, all in the same position but what has made the recent shifting of one Governor to another State more interesting is the underlying question of whether Ravi will continue as the Interlocutor of the peace talk between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India.

Or was Ravi named as Governor of Nagaland because he was central to the ongoing political negotiation by virtue of being the Interlocutor?

Is this is why questions are doing the round whether RN Ravi should have also resigned as the Interlocutor to give the Centre a free hand to name anyone it deems fit to take his place?

Or should it taken to mean that RN Ravi has only been transferred as the Governor and this should not cast anything on his position as the Interlocutor?

These questions are interesting especially when viewed in the backdrop of the recent and not so recent developments between him and the NSCN (IM).

To make matters more interesting is the report from NDTV that the Centre has not been able to finalise the appointment of former Intelligence Bureau Special Director Akshaya Kumar Mishra as Interlocutor because RN Ravi still holds the charge.

Does transferring Ravi as Governor of Nagaland come along with the understanding that he should also quit as Interlocutor?

No clear cut answer has been forthcoming and this does not answer the question of whether the post of Interlocutor is still with RN Ravi or moving him out of Nagaland comes with the package that he also moves out as the Interlocutor.

The Centre has not been forthcoming with an answer to this and while its position can be understood, one may see something beyond the transfer of RN Ravi as the Governor of Nagaland.

That the NSCN (IM) has been crossing swords with RN Ravi for quite some time now is something known to all and many see this as one of the prime reasons for the peace process between the Naga outfit and the Government of India not making much progress after the Framework Agreement was signed on August 3, 2015.

Apart from the opposing stand on the question of a separate flag and Constitution which the NSCN (IM) has been sticking to, what are the other points where the two sides cannot see eye to eye?

With no one privy to what has been going on for the last many years, it is difficult to say but it was not so long time back that Ravi as the Governor of Nagaland came out strongly against what he termed 'extortion' from the public, which the NSCN (IM) said was 'legitimate tax'.

On the other hand it is also interesting to note that not much is heard about where RN Ravi stands in the perception of the Naga National Political Groups, the conglomerate of other armed Naga outfits with which the Government of India has also inked a peace deal.

No one is yet sure when a new Interlocutor will be appointed, but the Government of India has already rung out the signal that it is committed to taking the peace process forward and perhaps the first step towards this would be to see how soon a new Interlocutor will be appointed.