ABSTRACT
One has lost count but the present round of talks between the centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland led by Isak Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah (NSCN-IM) must be the sixty-sixth or sixty-seventh, not taking into account the informal contacts that began way back in 1967. The Shillong Accord that was supposed to have brought peace to Nagaland marked the beginning of divisions within the Naga nationalist movement, reflecting the divide in Naga society. The result is that though the NSCN-IM claims with some legitimacy and the media too, even more than the Government of India, project the organization as the structure with which an agreement has to be sealed for a ‘lasting peace in Nagaland’, there are several other actors who cannot be ignored. Negotiations for ‘a lasting peace in Nagaland’ are also on with both factions, each of which claims it is the ‘sole representative’ of the Naga nationalist aspirations.
