Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 17
Barely a day after Union Minister Oscar Fernandes had said that the peace process between India and the NSCN (IM) is “progressing a bit too slowly”, there has been a significant development with sources confirming that NSCN (IM) General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah is all set to visit Delhi to carry forward the political dialogue.
According to information received, Muivah is expected to arrive as early as December 20, Wednesday in what is seen as a surprise development. The visit of Muivah is made all the more significant coming as it does at a time when the Winter Session of Parliament is in full swing and also barely two weeks after the end of the last round of talks in Amsterdam.
However, senior NSCN (IM) leaders when contacted refused to divulge any details, other than confirming that Muivah will indeed be coming to Delhi for ‘serious deliberations’.
Mention may be made that ever since the last two rounds of talks, both the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) have been keeping confidential on what has transpired at the negotiating table.
Even the earlier practice of issuing the customary Joint Press Communiqué at the end of each round of talk had been discontinued for some time, except at the end of the Amsterdam talks earlier on December 5 wherein it was mentioned that the two sides held “serious discussions” to find a lasting solution to the six-decade-old Naga problem and “agreed to meet again early next year”.
The grapevine has been that political negotiations have entered a “critical” stage despite differences on several key issues including unification of all Naga-inhabited areas of the northeast.
Both sides are also understood to have seriously discussed the limits of flexibility within the constitution and whether a “sub- national constitution” could be accommodated within it. Government sources in Delhi points out that this has become a thorny issue as the NSCN-IM has proposed a federal relationship with the Indian state.
