Syed Zarir Hussain

Guwahati, June 1:

A fragile peace in India’s restive northeastern state of Nagaland has come under a cloud with exiled leaders of a frontline tribal separatist group having second thoughts over visiting New Delhi for talks with the new government. “Let the government clarify its stand. The proposed visit by our leaders would now depend on New Delhi’s stand,” senior National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) leader Phunthing Shimrang said in Dimapur. The NSCN had announced shortly after the new Congress-led central government assumed office that its guerrilla leaders, Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, would visit India soon for carrying forward the ongoing peace talks with the new administration. Several top NSCN leaders are now based at various South Asian cities.

But what has irked the NSCN is a line in the Common Minimum Programme of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government about protecting and maintaining the territorial integrity of states. The NSCN wants the creation of a Greater Nagaland by carving slices off the neighbouring states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Manipur — all of which have sizeable Naga populations. The demand for a Greater Nagaland is, however, not acceptable to the other states.The group entered a ceasefire with New Delhi in 1997 and the two sides have since held several rounds of talks in Switzerland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia.

“We don’t want the talks to get bogged down because of certain technical reasons. We want peace and an end to years of bloodshed in the region,” A Sema, a church leader in Kohima said. The peace process got a symbolic boost when NSCN leaders Muivah and Swu visited India for the first time in 36 years and met with former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last year. Officials and activists in Manipur have warned of unrest if their state is carved up to meet Naga separatist demands of a Greater Nagaland.