Mr Muivah, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur, wanted to visit his native village Somdal in Ukhrul district after nearly forty years. He had obtained New Delhi's nod for the visit but the people and the Government of Manipur were dead against it. They feared that the Naga leader's visit would disturb communal amity in the State and strengthen the demand for the integration of Naga-dominated areas of the neighbouring States into a greater Nagaland or Nagalim. Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong are the three districts of Manipur which the Nagas have claimed.

As Mr Muivah reached Viswema, a village near the border town of Mao, a large number of Nagas gathered on the Manipur side of the border to welcome him. The Manipur police, ordered to prevent his entry into the State, opened fired to disperse the crowd which had grown restive and burnt a police vehicle. A stampede followed in which three persons were killed. Two of them were women. The situation became explosive. Some local NGOs persuaded Mr Muivah to defer his visit till normalcy returned. Mr Muivah agreed but made it known that he remained firm on his resolve and that he could not be prevented from going to his village.

New Delhi summoned the Manipur Chief Minister, Mr Okhram Ibobi Singh, ostensibly to soften Manipur's opposition and facilitate Mr Muivah's visit. Mr Singh met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Chidambaram, Defence Minister A. K. Antony and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. But they failed to persuade Mr Ibobi and the stalemate could not be broken.

Meanwhile, six Independent Naga MLAs of Manipur had resigned to protest the State Government's “No” to Mr Muivah and the “inaction” of the Centre. They demanded deployment of Central forces in Imphal Valley and a judicial inquiry into the firing. Rumours were rife in Imphal that the Naga police had set up “bunkers” on their side of the border.

CPI leader and Manipur's Family Welfare Minister, Mr Pheroijam Parijat Singh said the State Cabinet had taken a decision that if New Delhi insisted on allowing Mr Muivah to visit Somdal, the Chief Minister along with his Cabinet would resign. Mr Chidambaram disapproved of this stand. He regretted that in Manipur “a person wants to go to his home village, but the Government there is resisting it.” But the Manipur Government countered it, saying the ceasefire between the Centre and the NSCN(IM) does not extend beyond Nagaland. Hence Mr Muivah's visit to Manipur is unacceptable.

In New Delhi, the core committee of the Congress met to take stock of the situation and decided against the Muivah visit, as this was likely to trigger further tension and lead to ethnic clashes in Manipur. Eventually, Union Home Secretary G. K. Pillai made an airdash to Imphal accompanied by the Centre's interlocutor for Naga talks, Mr R. S. Pandey, for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

After talking to the Chief Minister and his colleagues, Mr Pillai met Mr Muivah and persuaded him to return to Dimapur where the NSCN(IM) has its designated camp. He explained to the Naga leader in no uncertain terms that law and order being a State subject under the Constitution, the Centre could do little if a State Government refused entry of a person fearing breach of the peace.

The geography and population pattern of Manipur explain the the mutual distrust and the mental divide between the people of the hills and the plains. The hills, inhabited by Naga and other tribes, account for nearly 90 per cent of the territory and the plains only ten per cent. But 60 per cent of the population lives in the plains and 40 per cent in the hills. While a Manipuri cannot buy land in the hills, there is no such corresponding ban on the hill people. Over the years, hill tribals have been acquiring land in and around Imphal. The Manipuris resent the consequent slow but steady change in the population composition of the Valley. The Manipuris will not allow a single square inch of their territory to be taken away and made part of Nagalim. Nor will the other States.

On the contrary, the pressure on the NSCN(IM) is also immense. Mr Muivah and Mr Swu have realized and reconciled themselves to the reality that a sovereign independent Nagaland is an impossibility. They have to settle for less to arrive at a political solution. If the Naga-inhabited areas of the adjoining States cannot be integrated into one composite State for all the Nagas, what will they hold up to their people as the net achievement of their long and arduous struggle that began way back in 1953 under the leadership of the legendary Angami Zapu Phizo ?

The situation is indeed tricky. It will take a great deal of ingenuity on the part of the Centre to be able to formulate a solution acceptable to all the concerned people - not the Nagas only. (IPA)