PM sets up date with Muivah
Kohima, Feb. 24: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet the leaders of NSCN (I-M) next week in New Delhi to carry forward the Naga peace process.
Singh is expected to meet NSCN general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah on March 2 to add tempo to the almost stalled Naga peace process. “Yes, he is meeting the Prime Minister of India,” A.Z. Jami, kilonser (minister) in-charge of ministry of information and publicity of the Government of the People’s Republic of Nagalim (GPRN) told The Telegraph.
The NSCN leader will arrive in New Delhi from Amsterdam on Saturday. He will be received by top NSCN/GPRN leaders and Nagas staying in New Delhi. Four top leaders of the Naga group have already reached the national capital to review security for their leader when he lands in New Delhi.
“We are reviewing security for his arrival,” said a senior functionary of the group from Delhi who did not want to be named.
Jami and other top officials of the group have confirmed that NSCN chairman Isak Chishi Swu would not be coming to New Delhi for the talks this time. “I have not heard about him coming,” Jami said. According to NSCN sources, there was a problem with his travel documents. The sources said he is in South Asia. Earlier, he was in the Philippines.
Tongmeth Wangnao and Jognny Dilbung, members of steering committee, the highest policy making body of the group, education kilonser Vikiye Sumi and Imcha Longkumer, secretary, ministry of information and publicity, have reached Delhi. They will meet security and home ministry officials for Muivah’s safety.
A senior NSCN functionary said Singh had invited the NSCN leaders for talks. “The Prime Minister had invited our leaders and therefore Ato kilonser (prime minister) has decided to come to Delhi,” the NSCN official said.
He said the crucial Naga talks would begin with the meeting of Muivah and Singh which will be followed by intensive discussions between the NSCN and the other leaders, led by the Centre’s newly appointed interlocutor, retired petroleum secretary R.S. Pandey, a former chief secretary of Nagaland.
V.S. Atem, convenor of the steering committee, along with senior members of the group, will join Muivah during the talks. Jami said he would not be joining the talks this time.
NSCN sources said the Centre had drafted a 29-point counter proposal to hammer out a solution to the Naga problem. The proposals include financial sops and greater autonomy.
The NSCN said the Centre had agreed to joint defence and foreign affairs and a common currency, but the contentious issue which still remained was integration of contiguous Naga areas under a single administrative unit.
The NSCN leaders were categorical that integration of Naga areas would be the basis for the solution to the Naga problem.
Amendment of the Constitution will be part of the “political package” which will be offered to the NSCN, said Union home secretary G.K. Pillai. “We are not offering a conditional package to the NSCN. It is upto them to take it,” Pillai had said during his visit to the state in October.
He, however, said the “political package” would be honourable and acceptable to both the Centre and the NSCN.
On Naga integration, Pillai said the decision would be taken by the political leadership in New Delhi.
