The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: In a fresh salvo at the Union government, the senior leader of the NSCN (Issac-Muivah) R.H. Raising has threatened to walk out of the ongoing peace talks if the outfit’s demand for a separate flag and constitution are not met.
Speaking at a day-long public consultative meeting of Naga leaders in Manipur’s Naga-majority Ukhrul district on October 25, Raising – considered an ideologue of the NSCN – said the issue of a separate flag “is at the stage of finalisation while the matter concerning constitution is still under negotiation.”
A Sangai Express report said he “asserted that the NSCN (I-M) is ready to walk out of the ceasefire (with the Union government) in case the position of the Nagas is not honoured (by the Narendra Modi government).”
The report said Raising, while reiterating that “Nagas are mission-oriented people and have no intention of merging with India or Myanmar”, also said, “No Indian law shall bind us.” Claiming that any form of “imposition (of the Centre) in the Naga region will make their movement more vibrant to defend their ancestral land rights”, the top NSCN leader who has been taking part in the peace talks with Centre since 2015, said New Delhi has “recognised the unique history of the Nagas after a series of political negotiations.” He also stated in his address that “there will be no peace in the Indian sub-continent without resolving the Naga issue.”
After a long deadlock in the peace talks due to the NSCN’s refusal to compromise on the issue of a separate flag and a constitution, the Ministry of Home Affairs resumed it this past August. Prior to those talks, NSCN’s topmost leader Th. Muivah had also reiterated those demands in his ‘Naga Independence Day’ speech.
“The flag and the constitution are naturally inseparable from the sovereignty of a people. It is universally an accepted truth that flag and constitution are constituent parts of sovereignty. There is no ambiguity about it. The Indian leaders understand it too. They must take the stand to speak the truth,” the octogenarian leader said on August 14.