10 member NSCN (IM) team on way to Delhi
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network
Dimapur, September 20 2014 :
A 10-member team of the NSCN-IM has left Dimapur today for New Delhi on the invitation of the Government of India.
NSCN-IM chairman Isak Chisi Swu and the outfit's general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah led the team.
According to sources, the ten-member delegation of the NSCN-IM will prepare for the formal talks with the Government of India at the National capital for about a week before the formal talks begin.
The precise dates scheduled for the talks have not been disclosed by the sources.
"First we will arrive in Delhi and we will let you know," said an NSCN-IM leader before departing for the National capital.
It is not clear when the NSCN-IM team will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The sources refused to divulge details of the programme.
"We have been invited by the Government of India for talks and so we are responding to it," said another source from the NSCN-IM.
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Meanwhile, speculations are rife that the NSCN-IM delegation will hold talks with Narendra Modi after a week or so.
Currently, the Prime Minister is in tight engagements with foreign affairs, the source stated.
There have also been speculations that the NSCN-IM team will start meeting with new interlocutor RN Ravi straight away.
But this is yet to be confirmed officially.
It is expected that in the series of meetings to be held between the NSCN-IM and the Government of India representatives from the NSCN (IM) will put up a series of issues with the ceasefire coverage likely to be discussed as the 'core issue', the sources added.
It is worth noting that there have been no formal talks between the NSCN-IM and the Government of India for a long time, as it was witnessed during the Vajpayee era.
When the Congress led UPA was in the saddle, the relationship between the NSCN-IM and the Centre was more of the blow-hot, blow-cold affairs.
With the coming back of the NDA at the Centre, the Naga civil society organisations and the NSCN-IM are upbeat and there have been expressions of optimism that something good for the Nagas is coming.