Okram Ibobi Singh addresses the media after emerging from Raj Bhavan on Thursday. Picture by Noren Singh

New Delhi, March 1: This weekend, when the Centre sits for talks with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), it will pat itself for insisting that the parleys be held only after the Manipur elections.

Manipur is vociferously opposed to NSCN (I-M)’s idea of “Naga integration,” which includes the Naga-dominated hills districts of the state. Now that Okram Ibobi Singh is back riding on the slogan of “territorial integrity”, the outfit faces a big challenge.

Disappointed by Ibobi Singh’s return to power and under attack from its rival NSCN (Khaplang), the NSCN (I-M) has good reason to feel “pushed to the wall” and the Centre to feel empowered.

When the outfit’s general secretary, Thuingaleng Muivah, came to India in December last year, he was told that talks would be held after the elections in Manipur.

So, the outfit’s general secretary Muivah must have arrived in the capital today with the intention of gaining lost ground.

Sources in the outfit said this round of talks will “prepare the ground” for subsequent parleys. So NSCN (I-M) chairman Isak Chishi Swu, will not participate this time.

In Amsterdam last year, the discussions had centred around the “sectoral relationship between India and Nagaland”.

The negotiation is stuck on the outfit’s demand for a special federal relationship between “India and Nagalim” where both entities are distinct but inseparable.

Delhi has viewed the idea with scepticism but both sides agreed to “study” the Constitution in a new light in an attempt to satisfy the outfit’s demand for a separate constitution.

There is also the outfit’s demand for integration of Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Nagaland under a single administrative umbrella.

In the last few months, the outfit’s leaders have held several “consultative meetings” in Nagaland’s villages. After talks in Delhi, one more round of meetings will be held, an NSCN (I-M) source said.

Michael van Walt van Praag of the Dutch NGO Kreddha is also likely to participate in discussions this time.

Though the Centre is opposed to third party mediation, the outfit insists on this “facilitator.”

Suspecting that Muivah will not get a Dutch visa again, the outfit will this time remind the Centre of the “promise it made of safe passage” before embarking on the peace talks 10 years ago.