UPA government lacked decisive leadership: NSCN(IM)

NEW DELHI: Naga rebel group NSCN(IM) has blamed the previous Manmohan Singh government for failure to evolve a solution to the vexed insurgency problem in Nagaland saying the UPA regime "lacked decisive leadership".

NSCN(IM) chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah said the previous government "exploited" their patience and did not respond for two years the outfit's proposals for bringing permanent peace in the Northeastern state.

"What we could understand or observe is that the leadership of the UPA government lacked decisive leadership who could take firm decisions," Muivah said in an interview with the magazine North East Sun.

Asked whether the NSCN(IM) was referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Swu said in affirmative.

"Yes. Manmohan Singh. No decision from his government," Swu alleged.

Praising former Home Minister P Chidambaram as a "very smart and responsible person" who wished to find the solution to Naga issue during his tenure, Muivah said it was very unfortunate that Chidambaram's successor Sushilkumar Shinde did not meet the NSCN(IM) leadership even once.

"We have never been called to meet him (Shinde). So they (government side) are keeping everything mum. It is intentionally done, deliberately done by the Congress government," he said.

The interview was taken just before the last Lok Sabha elections.

Muivah said the NSCN(IM) had made every effort to come close to the Indian government but he was unaware why the Congress government kept the matter hanging for the last two years.

Asked what could be the reason behind Congress government keeping quiet on the Naga issue for the last two years, Muivah said perhaps because there was a "lack of trust and confidence within Congress government".

The government has entered into truce with the dominant Naga insurgent group NSCN(IM) in 1997 and since then more than eighty rounds of talks were held between the Centre and NSCN led by chairman Swu and general secretary Muivah without concrete outcome in the last 17 years of truce.