Rift between PMO, Home over Naga talks

The meeting was held to determine if Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur were amenable to the NSCN’s demand that its ceasefire with security forces be extended to the `Naga-inhabited’ regions of these states. But the CMs of all the three states were dead against the proposal and said so to the PM, Assam’s Prafulla Kumar Mahanta being the most vociferous of them.

Home Ministry officials too agree that involving other states in the ceasefire “at this stage” could pose fresh law and order problems in the North-east.

Emerging out of Advani’s room yesterday, Jamir quipped: “Unless the Government involves all the rebel groups in the ceasefire talks, peace will elude the region.” Though he did not elaborate on this and made a quick exit, he was obviously referring to the NSCN (Khaplang) faction, which officially is not included in the government ceasefire. Advani-Jamir talks revolved basically around this aspect.

Advani, while touring the North-east recently, had announced that the Government was not averse to holding talks with the Khaplang faction. So far, however, there has been no Government-NSCN(K) interaction. Sources close to Advani disclosed that the Government’s stand on initiating a dialogue with the Khaplang group remained the same, but they were waiting for the “right time”.

With the last round of peace talks with the NSCN(I-M) held in January and the recent CMs’ meeting over it ending in a fiasco, no one knows how and when things will move on the Naga front. The militant group, though it has not snapped the ceasefire, has not disclosed its future plans. If Padmanabhaiah is keeping his fingers crossed, so are the PMO, the Home Ministry, Jamir and all else who have a stake in finding a lasting solution to the problem.