In an interview broadcast on the BBC on 29 April 2005, Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), made a departure when he proposed a special federal relationship between India and the Nagas, under which a separate constitution would be guaranteed to the latter. He ruled out the possibility of a quick, rough-and-ready settlement of the Naga issue within the framework of the Indian Constitution. Muivah emphasised that provisions of the Indian constitution did not guarantee anything because laws could be amended later without the consent of the Nagas.
Scholars studying the Indo-Naga conflict tend to conclude that the recognition of Naga sovereignty is an impossible demand for the Indian government to concede to. Yet, an armed conflict that has spanned over half a century has been centrally concerned with the Naga nationalist demand for sovereignty. The first Indo-Naga ceasefire agreement of 1964 focused mainly on the cessation of hostilities. Beyond that, there was no attempt to address vital issues of rights, justice, sovereignty and demilitarisation.
The 1964 agreement culminated in the infamous 1975 Shillong Accord, a humilating pact signed between Governor of Nagaland L P Singh and a six-member team of the Naga National Council. The Naga representatives, politically outmanouveured, unconditionally accepted the terms of military disengagement and agreed to a solution within the ambit of the Indian Constitution. After 1975, however, not only were the internal political power equations re-structured through bloody battles within the Naga armed opposition, but the Indo-Naga armed conflict itself escalated.
After a prolonged period of militarisation in Nagaland and the Indian Northeast as a whole, the ceasefire of 1997 between NSCN (I-M) and the Government of India led to hopes for peace among a new generation. Since then, the two parties have been engaged in a peace process. Although the peace has been fragile, it has held and has also forced Indian authorities into a dialogue with the Naga leadership. The political astuteness of the Nagas, as reflected in Muviah's recent interview, will test the limits of India's willingness to engage in the peace process. The Indian government cannot expect a Shillong Accord-style resolution this time around.