The NSCN-IM is no longer the force it used to be. Once the 'de facto government' of Magaland, it gradually reduced to an extortion racket. But missteps by the Centre could give it a new lease of life.
China has long coveted Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls Southern Tibet. But, as Venkataraghavan Subha Srinivasan explains, in 1947, the present state of Arunachal Pradesh constituted the North East Frontier Tract of Assam. When India adopted its Constitution on 26 January 1950, NEFT became 'a separate politico-administrative entity' although it was constitutionally still a part of Assam. Its administration was brought directly under the President of India with the Governor of Assam acting as his agent. A revealing excerpt from his book The Origin Story of India's States.
Manipur needs an integrated politico, military, socio-economic approach, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'How can such barbarity, bestiality, happen in modern India?'
AFSPA can be safely lifted from almost 90 per cent of Nagaland, argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Had it not been for the complicity of the state and Biren Singh's leadership, these riots would not have spread this far and for so long.'
The decision has been taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The AFSPA will continue to remain in force in 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh for six more months.
The newly-formed common forum of Northeast insurgent groups based in Myanmar has posed a renewed threat to security and peace in the troubled region.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday made it clear that any accord between the Centre and the NSCN(IM) should not compromise the territorial integrity of his state.
Naga rebel groups remain divided over the pact. Moreover, secrecy on accord creates apprehension in the society. K Anurag reports
Images that capture what it was like living through 2021.
A quintessential military commander, Gen Bipin Rawat possessed an uncanny understanding of geopolitical upheavals, calibrated a tri-services military doctrine to make India face myriad security challenges, and is largely credited with bringing down militancy in the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.
A tribute to an incomparable photojournalist who was slain by the Taliban on Thursday night.
The All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union has expressed anguish over the activities of the NSCN factions -- NSCN-IM and NSCN-K -- in the two districts having border with Myanmar where the Naga rebels have their bases.
At least seven insurgents belonging to Naga rebel group, Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang, including one woman cadre, were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces that took place at Pangsha in Tuensang district of Nagaland close to Indo-Myanmar border.
Security forces in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have mounted vigil in areas where the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Khaplang) led by Burmese-origin Naga S S Khaplang has strong influence.
The Union home ministry said there was 'substantial progress' on the issues in the talks.
Although India has sought inputs from the Myanmar army since most of those involved in Thursday's ambush would have sneaked across into Myanmar, the fresh operations would smoke out insurgents based in hideouts on the Indian side along the border.
'If India adopts a punitive and unforgiving stance against the Rohingyas, it will be courting disgrace,' says Amulya Ganguli.
In an attack carried out by the armed militants of the ULFA-I a Hindi-speaking businessman and his daughter were killed in the interior Bijulibon area in Assam on Tuesday night.
"Don't attack us, don't challenge our territorial integrity because we are not a small power, we're a major and nuclear power. Don't push us," Musharraf, 71, said.
There was a time when the fierce warriors of the Konyak tribe displayed the skulls of their vanquished enemies as war trophies. Today, their world is disappearing.
ational Investigation Agency has arrested a key member of Naga insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang for allegedly being a part of conspiracy to carry out the June 4 ambush that killed 18 army men in Manipur, in the first breakthrough in the probe into the incident.
The Army says such a move will seriously jeopardise surveillance over the country's sensitive border with China.
The decision has been taken due to a significant improvement of security situation in the state, a home ministry official said.
The operation in Nagaland and Manipur was carried out after the army received "credible and specific" intelligence.
Tawang is very much a part of India, and if the present Dalai Lama decides one day to take rebirth in Tawang, the Indian government will openly welcome him and support him, notes Claude Arpi.
The counsel appearing for Assam told the bench that they would place certain 'confidential documents' in the matter before the court for its perusal.
When Meenakshi Arvind and Mookambika Rathinam took an epic car journey from Coimbatore to London, they encountered a world that was more good than bad. In the cry for freedom in a dark corner of the globe, they discovered that The Mahatma remained India's greatest icon.
In his last column for Rediff.com, Praful Bidwai joins issues with those lauding India's covert operation against Naga rebels based in Myanmarese territory.
'The Congress, all these decades, worked on a slow Hindi-isation and Indianisation of Arunachal tribes. The RSS wants rapid Hinduisation,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Bearing in mind how full India's pitcher is with ethnic and communal complexities, only the greatest circumspection can hold this country together in a willing union.
The church bells don't toll in Churachandpur any more. The hill district in Manipur has been in mourning for more than a year.
Nine young men killed in police firing last August have become symbols of oppression of the tribals of Manipur.
'If India is already involved in helping the insurgents in Baluchistan and Karachi, as Pakistan says, it is but one step for New Delhi to bring Dawood or Hafiz Saeed into its sights,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'The Modi regime, after experimenting with its own versions of neighbourhood policy for 18 months, has now reached the exact stage where the Manmohan Singh government had left it in so far as our Pakistan policy is concerned,' says former senior RA&W officer Vappala Balachandran.
Indian intelligence agencies have often claimed that left-wing extremists are trying to make inroads in the militancy-hit regions of north-east to foment further unrest. But Jaideep Saikia, noted terrorism and conflict analyst, claims, "People who speak of Maoism taking roots in the north-east have not read history".
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