The statement by Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio that the state would get more Parliament and assembly seats is unlikely to help end the ongoing crisis.
The NSCN (IM), the biggest insurgent outfit in the state that has declared ceasefire and is engaged in talks with the Union government for three decades, said in a statement, "Such changes would never help the Naga cause as the most important issues would be unanswered."
What the CM said, on Wednesday, was the idea of the former interlocutor in Naga peace talks and former governor R.N. Ravi who sold it to the civil society in Nagaland and influential churches that the assembly seats could be increased to 90 from 60, and the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats to two. Ravi had also proposed that, like Mizoram, Nagaland would also get amended laws, allowing the state assembly to enact their social rights and laws.
"In a sense, the governor then wanted to mean that by giving more social legislation, the Nagas would be given right to determine their own identity," said Zelhou Keyho, chief of Baptist Church Council of Nagaland.
Keyho said during the meeting then, the governor-cum-interlocutor did not allow any questions and it was a monologue rather than discussion.
The biggest civil society of Nagaland, Naga HoHo had boycotted the meeting.
Ravi submitted the reports to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and later he was transferred to Tamil Nadu as governor.
Now, as per advice by Ravi's proposal, the present interlocutor has decided to propose the same idea to end Nagaland crisis.
Ravi had ruled out the bifurcation of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh to merge Naga inhabited areas with greater Nagaland. The concept of shared sovereign too was ruled out.
NSCN (IM) leaders said such an idea is against the norms of the terms and reference of talks.
"The Union government is making mockery of the talks. We have a piece of advice for Nagaland chief minister to talk sense. We did not fight for decades to get peanuts from government of India. They need to take us seriously," said an NSCN (IM) leader.
