Our demand is a greater Nagaland with its own flag and constitution: NSCN-IM leader

 | 

DIMAPUR, March 22, 2019: The demand of the NSCN-IM is a greater Nagaland with own flag and constitution, general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah said Thursday.

The demand of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) for greater Nagaland includes not only Nagaland but also the Naga-inhabited areas in the neighbouring states.

The demand is based on the Naga political rights and "we will not surrender our rights at any cost", Muivah said. "Our demand is for separate Naga national flag and a separate constitution and if the Centre does not accept (it), there is no other way to resolve the political problem," he said at the NSCN-IM headquarters in Hebron.

Muivah said the NSCN-IM and the Centre signed the historic framework agreement on August 3, 2015, but alleged that the Centre, instead of solving the Naga political problem, was delaying the matter.

"Therefore, there has to be a national flag, not symbolic cultural flag, and own constitution." He claimed that the NSCN-IM came to the negotiating table after the Centre "admitted" that the Naga issue was a political one. He said the Centre's interlocutor, R N Ravi, might come back to have talks with the Naga people.

(PTI)