3 months ago
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Ajit Lal, a 1974 batch retired Indian Police Service serviceman and erstwhile president of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), has been appointed arsenic the Northeast Adviser to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, a elder authorities authoritative told The Hindu. In 2014, helium was succeeded arsenic JIC main by R.N. Ravi, present the Governor of Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Lal, 73, was appointed arsenic JIC main nether the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) successful 2011 for a play of 3 years which ended successful July 2014. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to powerfulness successful May 2014, the MHA, nether then-Home Minister Rajnath Singh, recommended Mr. Lal’s sanction arsenic the interlocutor for Naga bid talks. The NSCS, which reports to the National Security Adviser (NSA) nether the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), however, overruled the MHA’s proposal and alternatively appointed Mr. Ravi arsenic the interlocutor. He continued successful the presumption till September 2021, erstwhile helium was appointed Tamil Nadu Governor.
In his caller role, Mr. Lal volition not lone pb the Naga bid talks but besides proceed the dialog with the Kuki-Zo and Meitei insurgent groups successful Manipur.
Experienced negotiator
He replaces A.K Mishra, a retired IPS serviceman and erstwhile peculiar manager of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), who was appointed arsenic the MHA’s Northeast advisor successful 2021.
Mr. Lal, who hails from the Himachal Pradesh cadre, besides served arsenic an IB peculiar manager from 2008 to 2011. He is an aged manus astatine the Naga governmental talks, having led the bid talks from March to July 2014.
According to his LinkedIn page, his enactment astatine the clip included “negotiations with an equipped insurgent radical to transportation them to springiness up unit and go a portion of the mainstream governmental system.”
On February 5, Mr. Lal and Mr. Mishra were some contiguous astatine the signing of the tripartite statement for the instauration of Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA) that was signed betwixt Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO), the Nagaland government, and the MHA. The statement paved the mode for the instauration of FNTA for six districts of Nagaland — Tuensang, Mon, Kiphire, Longleng, Noklak, and Shamator — and devolution of powers to the FNTA with respect to 46 subjects.
Change of guard
At a February 4 gathering successful Delhi with the Kui-Zo insurgent groups successful a suspension of operations (SoO) pact with the government, Mr. Mishra informed the participants astir the alteration of guard.
Mr. Lal’s assignment comes astatine a important clip erstwhile President’s Rule has been revoked successful Manipur and a caller Chief Minister has been installed. The culmination of the Naga bid talks and the SoO pact with Kuki-Zo insurgent groups, which has the imaginable to interaction governmental and information dynamics successful the Northeast, are among the cardinal priorities of the BJP-led Union government.
The Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), which signed a model statement with the Indian authorities successful 2015 nether Mr. Ravi, is demanding the instauration of ‘Greater Nagaland’ oregon ‘Nagalim’ by integrating Naga-dominated areas successful neighbouring Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh to unite 1.2 cardinal Nagas.
After the May 3, 2023 taste unit betwixt the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo radical successful Manipur, the Kuki-Zo insurgent groups oregon the SoO groups are pressing for a Union Territory with legislature for the community. In bid talks since 2008 pursuing the Naga-Kuki clashes successful the 1990s erstwhile hundreds were killed, the SoO groups had settled for territorial autonomy successful Manipur till the taste unit erupted successful 2023.
