New Delhi, January 10: Striking a more realistic note during their talks with Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani today, Naga insurgent group NSCN (I-M) leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah made it clear that they had not given up on their main demands.
Though none of the prickly issues were taken up during the hour-long ‘‘warm’’ meeting, the two leaders expressed concern about the forthcoming elections in Nagaland, saying that they may not be free and fair, and that they would not be participating in them.
Advani, however, assured them, giving them the example of Jammu and Kashmir. ‘‘This is what people said about J&K but we proved everybody wrong. And we are determined to repeat it in Nagaland,’’ the Deputy PM reportedly told them.
Sources said that the stage was now set for substantive delegation level talks, starting tomorrow, where all controversial issues would be taken up.
The talks will be held between NSCN (I-M) leaders and government’s interlocutor K. Padmanabhaiah and other officials. And the issue of Greater Nagaland — probably by another name — is likely to figure prominently.
Reiterating what they had said yesterday after meeting the Prime Minister — there is no Greater or Smaller Nagaland, only Nagaland — Muivah explained the statement, making it explicit that all land inhabited by Nagas was Nagaland, whether it was Ukhrul in Manipur or areas in Assam.
‘‘Ukhrul is the land of my father. That is my land too. There are other Nagas there. We are not living in the land of Meitis, and that is Nagaland,’’ he said.
Muivah, the group’s general secretary, also announced that they were not going to participate in the Assembly elections.
Asked if they were going to boycott the elections like the last time, Muivah said pointedly, ‘‘It was not us but the people of Nagaland who boycotted elections. Even this time it’s up to them.’’
Swu, adopting a more diplomatic stance, said that they would not going to interfere with the elections in the state.
Muivah, continuing to be a tough talker — that he is known to be — said that destiny of Nagas must be left to them to decide. ‘‘So also their sovereignty,’’ he stressed.
Even Mahatma Gandhi, he said, agreed that Nagas had every right to be independent, considering their uniqueness.
‘‘Nagaland was divided arbitrarily, and anybody who is opposed to this will be very sorry,’’ he added.
Explaining the ‘‘unique history’’ of Nagas, he said, Nagaland declared independence, and continues to celebrate independence day, one day ahead of India.
‘‘In 1950, when Union of India was made a republic, Nagas refused to be a part of it. The government has to recognise this,’’ said Muivah, adding that the government seemed to understand it, this time around.