There’s a road ahead but no one’s quite sure where it leads

It was my turn to stare at her.

Unknown to Beth, the same point was being hammered home some 2,000 km away in Delhi by Issak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, holding their first talks on Indian soil with Central leaders.

The NSCN (I-M)’s grand design of a Greater Nagaland — it also incorporates parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh — would be incomplete without Manipur’s Naga-inhabited areas of Senapati, Ukhrul, Tamenglong and Chandel.

Muivah himself is from Ukhrul, home of the Thangkul Nagas. While Senapati is the bastion of the Maos, Poumais and Marams, the Zeliangs have long considered Tamenglong their home turf.

Driving through Senapati, you will find Mao written all over: posters announce the XII Congress of the Mao Naga Catholic Women’s Association, a board invites you to a Mao hotel and can drop in at the Mao battery/dynamo repair centre.

Or, you will probably be overtaken by a bus operated by the Poumai Travels. The stamp of Naga inhabitation is unmistakable.

Herein, though, lies the problem. Nagas have long had the Meiteis of Manipur up in arms, more so after the Nagaland Assembly passed a Bill demanding the merger of Manipur’s Naga-inhabited districts under an agreement signed between the Naga Peoples’ Convention and the Centre way back in 1960. And now, by inviting the NSCN(I-M) for talks, the Centre has only fuelled Meitei suspicions.

Many Nagas believe the Centre will find it very difficult to satisfy demands of the NSCN (I-M). Kelhizulo Lasuh, a Chakesang Naga who teaches theology at Pfutsero in Phek district bordering Manipur, sums it up: ‘‘The Nagas stand to gain if the NSCN (I-M) arrives at some sort of a settlement with the Indian Government. The issue of Naga sovereignty is out. If you were to ask a Naga, he will say is all for Greater Nagaland. It is his inner desire.

‘‘But there will be big trouble. The Meiteis are not going to keep quiet. To my mind, we should settle for what we have. But then not everyone thinks the same way. And who knows what the Government is promising Muivah.’’

In Kohima, there are sharp divisions over the decision to invite the NSCN (I-M). Groups like the Naga National Council led by Adino Phizo — the daughter of A. Z. Phizo who, on the eve of India’s independence, declared the Naga Hills independent and sowed the seeds of insurgency — have been fractured, marginalised but that hasn’t prevented them from calling the I-M ‘‘a terrorist outfit from Ukhrul with no popular support and national mandate.’’

Officials of the Jamir Government — the Chief Minister is said to be sympathetic to the other NSCN faction led by S.S. Khaplang, who fell out with Issak and Muivah in 1988 — too rule out any ‘‘quickfix solution’’ .

‘‘The Naga issue is very complex. There are a number of factions, 16 tribes, years of suspicion and mistrust. Talks with the I-M are fine but the next step forward should involve all Naga groups. Look what happened to the Shillong Accord (signed in 1975 with elements of the underground Federal Government of Nagaland but Muivah and Swu stayed away and formed the NSCN five years later). All parties have to be spoken to. If that’s not done, it could all again lead to nothing,’’ says a senior official.

On that count, there seems to be very little disagreement.