Dimapur, Sept 28:   The Working Committee (WC) of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) has called on the Indian government to honor the Agreed Position related to the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar.

In a statement released on Saturday, the committee expressed concerns over recent proposals to fence the Indo-Myanmar border, noting that Nagaland shares a 215 km border with Myanmar out of a total of 1,643 km.

The committee asserted that the Status Paper’s contents cannot be altered unilaterally by either the government of India or the WC, NNPGs. It highlighted that the agreement includes provisions for recognizing Naga identity in the Indian Passport Act and extending the FMR for indigenous Nagas up to 35 miles across the border. They pointed to the case of the Angh of Longwa village, which lies on both sides of the border, as an illustration of the historical injustices faced by the Naga people.

The WC, NNPGs warned that constructing border fencing would forcibly displace indigenous Nagas from their ancestral lands and violate the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They cautioned that the government’s actions could unfairly penalize Nagas residing in both India and Myanmar.

The committee further criticized arbitrary political decisions made by New Delhi in the past, which have angered the Naga community and led to severe consequences. They urged the government to focus on reaching an early political solution instead of imposing border restrictions.

According to the committee, the Agreed Position is a significant and binding political document that has received backing from various Naga tribes and civil societies since negotiations began in November 2017. They emphasized that the discussions officially concluded on October 31, 2019, and insisted that the government should not disregard the agreement or delay addressing the political future of the Naga people.