Fresh developments in Naga peace talks and perceived differences between Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-Isak Muivah) might have brought surprises in some quarters but a closer look at last two decades suggest such episodes are not new entirely.
The talks process with NSCN (IM) had commenced formally in 1997 during I K Gujral’s stint and the formal parleys commenced during the stint of Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime when Swaraj Kaushal, Late Sushma Swaraj’s husband, was appointed as the first interlocutor.
Initially, even Kaushal’s appointment was ‘opposed’ by NSCN (IM) with the militant group stating that the former Mizoram Governor (Kaushal) was trying to view the Naga political issue with ‘Mizoram prism’.
Of course in later stage, Kaushal also developed differences with the Prime Minister’s Office and especially the then NSA Brajesh Mishra and subsequently K Padmanabhiah, a former Union Home Secretary was appointed as the negotiator.
But things did not move very smoothly always. In 2005, during the tenure of Manmohan Singh regime as the Centre moved ahead to broad base the peace parleys and tried to involve all factions, the NSCN (IM) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah in a media interview threatened to walk out of the talks. (UNI)
