NEW DELHI, Oct 24 ? The hands-off attitude of the Centre threatens to derail the peace process with the outlawed NDFB even before formal talks to pave the way for ceasefire gets under way, highly-placed sources told this newspaper.
When Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi called on Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil last Thursday to discuss the NDFB?s offer, he went with the impression that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) would take the lead in opening negotiations with the recalcitrant Bodo militant outfit but had to contend himself with just a ?go-ahead? and an assurance for Centre?s backing.
In short, the onus is now on the Assam Government to take the lead and start the dialogue process with NDFB, while the Centre would play the second fiddle ? an arrangement that may not be acceptable to the NDFB. The reason being the North East-based organisation?s penchant for holding direct talks with the Centre.
Complicating matters, the NDFB in its formal communication to the State Government said that it wanted to hold negotiations with the Government of India. The outfit said that it had declared unilateral ceasefire with effect from October 15 to create congenial atmosphere for talks with the Government of India.
Sources said that the State Government tried to impress this on the Union Home Minister but had to come back disappointed. It was their contention that the Centre had numerous advantages of initiating such sensitive talks as compared to the limited resources of the State Government.
?What happens if the NDFB decide to have the first few round of talks abroad? How can the State Government negotiate on subjects that fall on the ambit of the Centre? asked the sources. The argument was based on the past experiences when the Government of India took the lead in opening talks with both the factions of the NSCN, the recently concluded dialogue with the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) and even the ongoing talks with DHB.
In the case of the NSCN (I-M) it was the intelligence agencies that opened channels of communication way back in early 1990s and arranged a meeting with the then Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao abroad. Since then a series of behind-the-scene meetings were held with different Prime Ministers before a formal ceasefire was announced in 1997.
Though the Nagaland Government was kept informed, the State Government is yet to be brought on board on the negotiation process. It was last week that Nagaland Chief Minister N Rio came to North Block seeking permission to go abroad to meet the NSCN (I-M) leaders.
The talks are now being held between representatives of the Government of India and the Naga outfit. The Union Government is led by its chief interlocutor, K Padmanabhaiah. Again in the case of the negotiations with the BLT it was officials of the Government of India who were responsible for initiating talks with the armed outfit. The talks with the BLT used to be chaired by a senior official of the MHA of the rank of special secretary though the State Government was part of the negotiation.
According to arrangement now worked out for negotiations with the NDFB, it would be a triparte one and the Central team from Delhi would be joining it as and when invited by the State Government. But first the State Government would have to take an initiative to hold preliminary negotiations to prepare the ground for declaration of ceasefire.
Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, however, was optimistic about the process and said that they would have to within next week to try to establish contact with the NDFB leadership to come for preliminary discussion. Admitting that the State Government was faced with a peculiar situation, Gogoi said in earlier instances groundwork was prepared before announcement of ceasefire. But in the case of the NDFB, they unilaterally declared a ceasefire.