The ga Agreement

The secrecy surrounding the agreement signed between the Government of India and the tiol Socialist Council of galim (I-M) is unfortute for a democracy. It is the kind of set-up we had for Jammu and Kashmir—different from the other States of the Indian Union—that is about to recreate bad precedents that sour relationships between the Centre and the States. Some of the differences between the proposed galim and the other States of the Indian Union are too glaring to be acceptable to Indians. To start with, galim will have a separate flag of its own. Besides, instead of being a constituent State of the Indian Union, it seeks the status of a sovereign country. Its four proposed subdivisions are not being called districts, but States. The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken the stand that the framework agreement had to be signed on August 3, 2015, as the then chairman of the NSCN(I-M), Isak Chisi Swu was sick, and there was need to get his stamp of approval on the broad parameters under which the fil parameters would be worked out. The Home Ministry has repeatedly assured the neighbouring States of galand that the inter-State boundaries would not be touched while filizing the peace pact with the militant groups of galand. This might be possible in respect of Assam, but it is bound to be a difficult proposition in dealing with Manipur and Aruchal Pradesh which have sizeable ga populations. The Home Ministry believes that some steps to preserve the ga cultural heritage in these two States without in any way changing the inter-State boundaries will do, but few people are confident that such a proposed solution will work. There is need for far better understanding of the equations involved.