The eight-year peace process between the Government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) is again surrounded by uncertainty after Th Muivah’s note of caution to the Nagas this week at Dimapur, Nagaland’s largest city.

After several rounds of talks with the Government of India in New Delhi, Mr Muivah, general secretary of the region’s most powerful militant group, declared that the Nagas should “be prepared for any eventuality and they should not be presumptuous.”

The formidable negotiator appears to be having problems in pushing the Naga agenda but remains unbending in the demand on meeting Naga aspirations. Although he says that India has genuinely understood the cause of the Nagas, he at times appears to be losing confidence in the Indian leadership.

“They only sided with the Meiteis, Assamese or Arunachalese,” Mr Muivah rued adding, “It (the Government of India) is not fair with the Nagas.”

He, however, says that the Nagas cannot expect 100 per cent fulfilment from the Indian side because there are some obvious difficulties. “But if they have the political will to solve the Naga problem, they can. The ball is in their court,” Mr Muivah said. The NSCN, he declared, had “made its position clear to the Government of India”.

The contentious integration issue – where the Nagas seek what they call the return of their traditional lands from Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh (and which the affected states denounce as an incorrect interpretation of history and reject such claims – has become the stumbling block to the problem of solving the protracted Naga political problem.

Mr Muivah, however, said they would only accept “negotiated settlement” but was not prepared for a compromise on the integration question which stirs anger in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh and worries New Delhi about a furious backlash from these states (all Congress-ruled), which could worsen ethnic confrontation in the region.

Assam, anyway, has land disputes with Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya going back decades, quite apart from the integration issue, and these are nowhere near settlement either. And New Delhi is unlikely to harm its own interests in states held by the ruling party.

“We cannot accept the Indian term of consensus with the neighbouring people of Nagalim on the solution to the Indo-Naga political problem,” Mr Muivah said.

There is a paradigm shift on the process over the last few years and integration has become the key to a solution to the Naga problem, which is as old as independent India. But this issue also has the potential to break the peace process if the reaction from the neighbouring states are any indication.

Although Mr Muivah says the ball is in New Delhi’s court for finding a solution to the Naga political problem, it appears that Delhi is not in a hurry and may buy time as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the solution to the Naga political problem would take time. “It cannot be sorted out in a few meetings,” he said.

Worried by the process, Mr Muivah says that the Nagas will not hesitate to go back to the jungle and fight for another 50 years for their rights.

He also indirectly threatened to conduct a referendum if “the political impasse with the Government of India continues”.

Backed by a four-point resolution adopted during a consultative meeting with Naga civil society groups on 20 and 21 January at the NSCN headquarters (Hebron), some 40 km from Dimapur, the NSCN I-M’s collective leadership left for Delhi and dialogued with the Group of Ministers headed by Oscar Fernandes.

Mr Muivah has not specified the current status of the talks, but it appears that the political process has entered a crucial stage but also that all is not well with the talks.

Mr Muivah’s return for consultations is likely to impact the ongoing peace process, a hardening of positions is possible.