Futility of talking to Muivah

What is the point of talking to Muivah when the other
stakeholders—other Naga groups and states of Manipur, Assam and
Arunachal Pradesh—are not present?

When a ceasefire was announced with the most violent and dominant Naga
insurgency group, the Nationalist Social Council of Nagaland
(Isak-Muivah), in 1997, it was hailed as a big step to bring peace to
the region and eventually integrate the fiercely independent Naga
tribes into the national mainstream. Barring minor incidents of
violence and violations of ceasefire agreements, peace has prevailed
but negotiations have not moved an inch forward in the past twelve and
half years. The reason is not far to seek. What is essentially a
political problem is being dealt by the bureaucrats in their typical
bureaucratic ways.
That is why nobody knows what precisely former home secretary K
Padmanabhaiya talked in his numerous meetings with Naga leaders,
sometimes in India but mostly abroad, for ten years. (Former Mizoram
Governor Swaraj Kaushal was the first interlocutor when talks began in
1998. Padmanabhaiya replaced him a year later and continued till
2009.) Even now, as it was at the beginning, the two contentious
issues remain the same--demand for complete sovereignty for Nagaland
and formation of a Greater Nagaland by assimilating Naga inhabited
areas of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The baton has now passed to another bureaucrat, R S Pandey, a Nagaland
cadre IAS officer and former chief secretary of the state who retired
a month ago as petroleum secretary.
Pandey would begin afresh with Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary
of NSCN(I-M), who flew in last week for the talks. While it is
understood that the sovereignty issue was a mere posturing by the Naga
leaders after the talks began in 1998, the talks broke down over
unification of Naga inhabited areas. On the one hand, the Naga leaders
are adamant that all Naga inhabited areas be made a single
geographical and political unity, on the other the states of Manipur,
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have ruled out any such possibility.
Assemblies in these states have even passed resolution pledging to
maintain territorial unity and integrity. When, some years ago, the
central government extended ceasefire with Nagas to districts of
Manipur, the state went up in flame.
The only way any progress can be made on this issue, therefore, is
through a political dialogue involving these states, which has not
happened in all these years. While it can be safely assumed that
these states are unlikely to yield ground, any alternate formula, like
granting autonomy to Naga inhabited areas outside Nagaland and
providing powers to Nagaland to carryout development work in these
areas, can only move forward if other states are involved in the
negotiations.
The other key to solving the Naga problem is to bring all the
insurgent groups to the negotiation table. NSCN (I-M) may be the most
prominent and powerful group, but it would be foolish to assume that
any negotiated settlement can be achieved without involving the other
faction, NSCN (Khaplang) and the Naga National Council. These warring
groups were brought together by the local church and Naga
Reconciliation Forum was set up last year to take the talks further.
But it is strange the government has invited Muivah alone for the
talks.
So what happens if the impossible were to happen and Muivah’s talks
with the interlocutor R S Pandey succeeded? It would have no meaning
unless other Naga insurgency groups accept it and the states of Assam,
Arunahcal Pradesh and Manipur endorse it. What is the point of talking
to Muivah alone then?