New Delhi, Jan. 20: Eleven days after their arrival in the capital, the NSCN (I-M) leaders today held a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi to seek the principal Opposition party?s support for peace talks to end Naga insurgency.
The meeting, held at Sonia Gandhi?s 10 Janpath official residence late this evening, was symbolic of the Congress party?s support to the Naga peace talks.
According to her political secretary Ambika Soni, Sonia Gandhi told the NSCN (I-M) leadership, ?We also want that the Naga issue should be settled at the earliest.?
However, Sonia Gandhi exercised extreme caution and echoed the apprehensions of Nagaland?s neighbouring states, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam ? all of which are under Congress rule, over ?Greater Nagaland?.
While the Congress is for an early settlement of the Naga issue, ?the solution should not bring any other problem,? Soni said, though she did not elaborate any further.
The NSCN (I-M) leadership, headed by its chairman Isak Chisi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah, avoided the media before and after meeting Sonia Gandhi. The Congress also kept the half-an-hour meeting a low-key affair. Senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh was present during the discussion. Swu and Muivah drove to 10 Janpath complex in two vehicles.
Lest the meeting created any misgivings, the Congress president received a Manipur delegation immediately after the NSCN (I-M) leadership left her residence. The Congress president is believed to have assured the 10-member Manipur team, led by chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, that the party will not support any deal that will put Manipur?s territorial integrity in jeopardy.
Coinciding with the celebration of the 31st Statehood Day, the Manipur chief minister will lead an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister on Tuesday to put forth the state?s case before the Centre.
Soni, meanwhile, also emphasised that while the party supported the Centre?s peace talks with the NSCN (I-M) leadership, it should also involve other representatives in the process, including the elected government in Kohima and the Khaplang faction of the NSCN.
She was obviously taking cue from Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir, who has been airing views on the peace talks repeatedly even while expressing his support for the talks with the NSCN (I-M) leadership.
Incidentally, the reported criticism of the Nagaland chief minister by NSCN (I-M) leaders after their courtesy meeting with Congress MP Rama Pilot last week had not gone down well with the party leadership though it avoided making noises about it.