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North East : Naga talks update |
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The NSCN (I-M) and the Government of India’s emissary, K Padmanabhaiah, held three days of talks in Amsterdam a few days ago. However, according to media reports, there was little substantial progress on any issue because as the Naga International Support Centre-based in Amsterdam said, T. Muivah, the NSCN (IM) general secretary, declared that the Centre had reneged on its promise on unconditional talks by inserting the clause of non-division of north-eastern states in the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling coalition.
This was regarded as an attack on the very basis of the talks, Padmanabhaiah was told, and the clause needs to be revoked. The NSCN (IM) view had been strengthened earlier by its front organisations lobbying in New Delhi with political leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and home minister Shivraj Patil about the non-negotiability of the demand for a Naga homeland, which includes the traditional areas where Nagas have lived. But others also live there and history is not just about the past, but also about here and now. Negotiations need to be carried out with flexibility and goodwill, not inflexibility.
The NSCN, whatever one may say about its methods, has been consistent in its political demands and approach. The Government of India, observers say, has been functioning in an ad hoc manner without a long-term vision of where it wants to go, barring occasionally repeating that there would be no territorial vivisection, a position which triggers Naga anger. The time is appropriate for political intervention with someone who has experience of the North-east and the confidence of the Centre to review the explosive issue of territory and borders and get the help of an expert group which could examine the problem in detail and suggest ways out of the impasse.
The next round of talks will be held later this month in Bangkok to renew the cease-fire for another year. The ceasefire which has been holding since August 1997, has brought some degree of peace and stability to Nagaland.
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