Condition Of Naga Leader, At Helm Of Talks With Centre, Stable: Hospital

The health condition of the General Secretary of the Naga armed group NSCN(IM), Th Muivah, who was admitted to a hospital in Nagaland on Saturday, is stable, the doctors treating him said, adding that the 87-year-old is responding well to the treatments.

Mr Muivah, who has been leading the negotiations with the Centre after the death of its Chairman Isak Chisi Swu in 2016, was rushed to the hospital in Dimapur after he had complained of "uneasiness".

"The patient is stable now and he is responding very well to the treatments. He is capable of interactions and spoke to us on several occasions in a normal way," said doctors at Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research where the NSCN(IM) is admitted.

Mr Muivah had tested positive for the Coronavirus after he had held a meeting of the Core Committee on Naga Political Issues recently. The Committee formed at the behest of reaching a solution to the long pending Naga peace process had 60 members that included all the members of Nagaland Assembly.

Muivah, Isak and SS Khaplang were the core members of the NSCN that split from Naga National Council after Shillong Accord in 1980. The NSCN further split in 1988, when a miffed Khaplang parted ways following a round of talks with Centre over clan rivalries among the Konyak people of Nagaland and the Tangkhul Naga of Manipur.

The Isak Muivah-led NSCN had entered into a ceasefire with the Centre in 1997 and have held over 100 rounds of talks - within and outside the country - since then.

All the issues, except NSCN(IM)'s demand for separate flag and own constitution, have been addressed.

Apart from NSCN(IM), the Centre is also separately holding the peace talks with eight other Naga arned groups which came together a few years ago under the banner of "Naga National Political Groups" or NNPGs.