In the appointment of the new interlocutor for Naga peace talks, the Prime Minister’s Office has overruled the Home Ministry. The PMO has appointed RN Ravi, Chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), as the new interlocutor while Home Minister Rajnath Singh had reportedly recommended the name of Ajit lal, who had retired as Chairman of JIC in July 2014. lal was also a former Intelligence Bureau high up dealing with North-East.
“The Government has appointed RN Ravi, Chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee as the new official interlocutor and Government of India representative for Naga peace talks,” said an official notification issued on Friday. Sources said after deliberating over the suggestion made by Rajnath Singh for several weeks, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) overruled it.
Ajit lal was a UPA appointee and his tenure as JIC Chairman was extended for a month up to July 31. The Home Minister suggested him as Interlocutor few days before his retirement.
Earlier, the PMO had overruled Rajnant Singh’s recommendation for appointment of Alok Singh, an IPS officer, as his private secretary on the ground that he had served as a PS to the former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid during the UPA regime.
Ravi, a 1976 batch IPS officer from Kerala cadre, was appointed as JIC Chairman earlier this week. The reason behind appointment of Ravi for the post was his expertise in Northeast affairs as he was looking after the region during his tenure in the Intelligence Bureau from where he retired as Special Director in 2012.
Ravi’s appointment has come about seven months after the last interlocutor RS Pandey resigned from the post. The post was being looked after by lal for the past few weeks. As the new interlocutor, Ravi will have to negotiate with Naga rebel group NSCN(IM), who had blamed the previous Manmohan Singh government of failure to evolve a solution to the vexed insurgency problem in Nagaland, saying the UPA regime “lacked decisive leadership”.
The government had entered into truce with the dominant Naga insurgent group NSCN(IM) in 1997 and since then more than 80 rounds of talks have been held between the Centre and NSCN led by chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary T Muivah without a concrete outcome in the last 17 years of truce.
In the past, former Governor Swaraj Kaushal, husband of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, former Union Minister Oscar Fernandes and former Union Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah had acted as interlocutors and had held talks with the Naga rebels.