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Naga ceasefire angers Samata

Agitated Samata Party leaders on Thursday expressed opposition to the central government's extension of ceasefire with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (I-M), saying that they had not been consulted before the vital decision was taken, party spokesman Shambhu Srivastava said.

"The party was not informed about the government decision to extend the ceasefire for a year with the NSCN(I-M). This agreement was not okayed by the Union Cabinet and it is definitely a case of short-sightedness on the part of the government," Srivastava stated.

He pointed out that his party would urge Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to ensure that "not an inch of Manipur land" is lost to the state as a result of the agreement.

Referring to Home Secretary Kamal Pande's statement on the government-NSCN(IM) agreement, Srivastava underlined that his statement was far from the truth.

"The agreement will bring about a bloodbath in Manipur. That is why we have appealed to the prime minister that other militant outfits and not only the NSCN(IM) should be involved in the peace process in the northeast for a permanent solution," he pointed out.

He referred to NSCN(IM) general secretary Muivah's statement in Bangkok on Thursday that his party would not simply stick to Nagaland's territory of 16000 square km because the ceasefire extended to the other northeast states like Manipur, Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

Samata Party leaders apprehended that Muivah's statement indicated that the NSCN(IM) intended to usurp land belonging to Manipur and other northeastern states as the result of its agreement with the Vajpayee government.

Contending that tempers among the people of Manipur had flared as the result of Thursday's government-NSCN(IM) agreement, Srivastava pointed out that that the "new element of the ceasefire extending to other states had been done without taking the other northeastern states into confidence''.

"The Samata Party is very disturbed that the agreement has been signed without consulting other parties at the Centre," the spokesman stressed, adding that "all of us are obsessed only with Kashmir".

He warned that the central government was playing with fire and what it has done was disastrous.

Since the agreement had been concluded in a hurry, the Centre would have to rush central forces as a precaution, in view of the anger of the people of Manipur regarding the agreement, he said.

Senior party member and former Manipur chief minister Radhabinod Koijam asserted that "Manipur is in flames and its youth on the warpath (because of the agreement). The government is making peace with one militant group at the cost of the others and this is extremely dangerou."

He said that sensing the mood of the Manipuri people, the party's state unit had adopted a political resolution which called for ending the agreement so that the "permanent peace process in the northeast" could become a reality.

"The agreement is a Himalayan blunder," he contended, indicating that hostility between the Samata and Bharatiya Janata Party had resurfaced.

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