What are the major challenges to internal security and peace process in the North-Eastern States? Map the various peace accords and agreements initiated by the government in the past decade.
Approach · directive: “what / map”
What it asks · Identify the drivers of insecurity in the North-East and chart the peace accords of roughly 2015–2025, with what remains unfinished.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Identify the major challenges to internal security and the peace process in the North-Eastern States
- Map the peace accords and agreements initiated by the government in the past decade (2015–2025), with what remains unfinished
Open with · The North-East’s insurgencies grew from identity, land and autonomy claims, porous borders and a long development deficit; violence has fallen sharply, but Manipur shows peace is fragile.
Cover
- Ethnic insurgencies and inter-ethnic conflict — Naga, Kuki and Meitei groups; the Manipur violence since May 2023.
- Porous Myanmar border and the Free Movement Regime; camps across the border; arms and drug trafficking from the Golden Triangle; illegal migration.
- Trust deficit: AFSPA and human-rights concerns, extortion economies, unemployment feeding recruitment; inter-State boundary disputes.
- Accords (Tripura–Mizoram): Naga Framework Agreement (2015); NLFT (2019) and NLFT–ATTF (2024); Bru–Reang resettlement (2020).
- Accords (Assam): Bodo Accord (2020), Karbi Anglong (2021), Adivasi groups (2022), DNLA (2023), ULFA pro-talks faction (2023).
- Boundaries and AFSPA: Assam–Meghalaya (2022) and Assam–Arunachal (2023) agreements; ‘disturbed areas’ under AFSPA reduced since 2022.
- Unfinished: the final Naga settlement (flag and constitution demands), Manipur, and time-bound implementation of accord promises.
Close with · Accords have shrunk violence; lasting peace now depends on implementing them faithfully and reconciling communities, not only armed groups.
Add value (verified)
- Under the Memorandum of Settlement of 29 December 2023, ULFA agreed to give up violence, surrender arms and disband. PIB, Ministry of Home Affairs — Memorandum of Settlement with ULFA (29 December 2023) ↗“under today's agreement, ULFA representatives have agreed to abjure path of violence, lay down all their arms and ammunition and disband their armed organisation.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2025, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 308 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
The North-East's insurgencies grew from identity, land and autonomy claims, porous borders and a long development deficit; violence has fallen sharply over the decade, but Manipur shows how fragile peace remains.
Challenges to security and peace
- Ethnic insurgency and inter-ethnic conflict — Naga, Kuki and Meitei claims over land and identity — with the Manipur violence since May 2023 the starkest case.
- Porous Myanmar border and the Free Movement Regime: rebel camps across the border, arms and drug trafficking from the Golden Triangle, and illegal migration that feeds identity anxieties.
- Trust deficit: AFSPA and human-rights concerns, extortion economies, unemployment that feeds recruitment, and inter-State boundary disputes that flare into violence.
- Peace-process hurdles: factional splits among armed groups, rival demands such as a separate Naga flag and constitution, and slow implementation of accord promises.
Accords and agreements, 2015–2025
- Naga: the Framework Agreement with NSCN (I-M) in 2015; the final settlement is still pending over the flag and constitution demands.
- Tripura and Mizoram: the NLFT agreement (2019), the Bru–Reang resettlement agreement (2020) that settled a long-standing displacement, and the NLFT–ATTF settlement (2024).
- Assam: the Bodo Accord (2020), the Karbi Anglong agreement (2021), the agreement with Adivasi groups (2022), the DNLA settlement (2023) and the Memorandum of Settlement with the pro-talks ULFA faction (December 2023), under which ULFA agreed to give up violence, surrender arms and disband.
- Boundaries and AFSPA: the Assam–Meghalaya (2022) and Assam–Arunachal (2023) boundary agreements; 'disturbed areas' under AFSPA cut back since 2022 in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.
What remains unfinished
- The final Naga settlement, restoring peace and trust in Manipur, time-bound delivery of accord promises — councils, funds and rehabilitation of cadres — and border management with Myanmar, including fencing and a review of the Free Movement Regime.
Accords have shrunk violence; lasting peace now depends on implementing them faithfully and reconciling communities, not only armed groups.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.