New Delhi: National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) chief Thuingaleng Muivah Friday said the Naga people have “neither accepted the Union of India nor her Constitution at any point of time”, and will not do so in the days to come.He was speaking on the occasion of the ‘Naga Independence Day’, at council headquarters at Hebron. 

Muivah also referred to the Framework Agreement that the rebel group signed with the Narendra Modi government on 3 August 2015, and said the Centre had  recognised the sovereignty of the Nagas. “The Nagas will co-exist with India sharing sovereign powers as agreed in the Framework Agreement and defined in the competencies. But they will not merge with India,” he said.

The Framework Agreement, Muivah said, mentions “inclusive peaceful co-existence of the two entities sharing sovereign power”. ‘Inclusive’, he said, means all Nagas in different administrative units and political camps are to be included in the agreement. 

“Co-existence of the two entities is self-explanatory. It means the two peoples and nations will co-exist,” he said. “Political and legal experts admit the terms ‘co-existence’ and ‘shared-sovereignty’ apply to two entities, not one entity.” 

Muivah said even though the Nagas and Indians are “two poles apart in terms of history, race, identity, culture, language, geography, political concept and faith” and have nothing in common except security and commercial interests, both “must work out a common ground for a meeting point so that we may co-exist together as two entities”.