Come election time, almost all political parties are talking about insurgency and militancy in the Northeast region and their commitment to end it through talks or negotiations. Be it BJP or Congress or any other party holding the reins of government at the Centre have been saying that the door for negotiations with insurgent or militant groups is wide open. A week back, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh while campaigning in Manipur said that he is ready to talk to the insurgent groups to discuss and address the issues raised by them. Yet, he has a rider that BJP needs another term in order to solve the problem. And it is the turn of Union Home Minister Amit Shah as he says if BJP is again voted to power they will have deliberations with all rebel groups and bring peace to the hills.
Well, the powerful Home Minister was talking about the hill based militant outfits most of which are either under ceasefire or suspension of operation (SoO). One wonders whether Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah are on the same page. But one thing is certain, the valley based groups are not on their radar as these groups have consistently rejected the peace offer in the past. At one point, the government at the Centre was fixated on bringing NSCN (I-M) the negotiating table as the group was considered as the ‘mother of all insurgencies’ in the Northeast and top ranking intelligence officials believed that once NSCN (I-M) is brought into the loop of negotiations, the other groups would follow suit. It is partly true in the case of Northeast as NSCN (I-M) was responsible for spawning many ethnic based insurgent groups in its effort to broaden its reach and control. But it was not so in the case of valley based groups of Manipur valley whose ideals are in direct contrast to the designs of NSCN (I-M) and the dream of Naga integration.
NSCN (I-M) had been negotiating with the Government of India through interlocutors since 1997 and still there is no end in sight. The secret parleys began in 1995, when the then Prime Minister PV Narisimha Rao met Thuingaleng Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu in Paris on June 15.
The then Home Minister Rajesh Pilot again met them in Bangkok in November 1996. Several Prime Ministers, including HD Deve Gowda and Atal Behari Vajpayee also met them at various locations outside the country secretly, besides scores of Intelligence and top officials of the Home Ministry, till it became official on June 14, 2001 when the then interlocutor K Padmanabhaiah signed the controversial ceasefire ‘without territorial limits’ with the NSCN (I-M) leaders. Manipur took exception to the term ‘without territorial limits’ as it was linked with Muivah’s dream of a Greater Nagaland which seeks to bring in contiguous areas inhabited by Nagas in the neighbouring states of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh under a single administrative unit called Nagalim along with the state of Nagaland. After intense agitation in Manipur, the Atal Behari Vajpayee government backtracked on the Bangkok agreement and limited the ceasefire to the state of Nagaland only. It was not only Manipur, but both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh also protested against the agreement.
Coming back to the point, most Kuki militant groups were brought under SoO although they operate at will from their designated camps and also meddling in the state assembly elections. On the other hand, most valley based groups except for a few rag-tag factions are against any kind of talks. Why is it so? It seems they are keenly watching the process of negotiations going on with the Naga and Kuki groups. While NSCN (I-M) had time and again had been questioning the sincerity of GOI, no serious talks are going on with the Kuki groups. Perhaps, this could be why the valley based groups are reluctant to enter into any kind of peace process. Again, any offer of peace should be preceded by certain confidence building measures (CBMs).
