Sangliana at the news conference in Shillong. A Telegraph picture

Shillong, Feb. 19: Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga’s unfinished task as peacemaker for the troubled Northeast could be completed, at least in part, by another Mizo who has blazed a trail in faraway Karnataka as a police officer and a parliamentarian.

“Supercop” H.T. Sangliana, whose defining moment as Karnataka director-general of police was the operation that led to forest brigand Veerappan’s death, said today that some militant groups active in Manipur had approached him to broker talks with Delhi.

Sangliana is in Meghalaya to bolster the BJP’s election campaign and convey the message that the party is “not anti-Christian, as it is projected to be”.

The retired IPS officer did not name any militant group, but said that more than one of them had approached him. “Talks with militants are necessary (to restore peace) and I am ready to negotiate. But the governments should take a strong stand on their criminal activities.”

Like the cop-turned-MP, Zoramthanga was in contact with some militant groups of the Northeast until two years ago.

Sangliana is known for his no-nonsense approach and integrity as a politician, qualities that his admirers believe will come in handy if he does mediate between militant groups and the government. Advocating a carrot-and-stick policy in dealing with militancy in the Northeast, he said the “Mizoram model” was worth emulating, too.

Peace returned to Mizoram after the militant avatar of the Mizo National Front laid down arms and began a process of dialogue.

On whether the NSCN (Isak-Muivah)’s insistence on integration of all Naga-inhabited areas and Ulfa’s demand for “sovereignty” deserved consideration, he said popular opinion should be put above an individual or a group’s views. He said the MNF demanded an independent homeland but listened to the “voice of the people” and went for a settlement by consensus.

“I had spoken to the MNF leaders about the futility of fighting against India, telling them that it would be a rat-and-elephant fight.”

Sangliana said militant groups as well as natives of the Northeast should first feel that “we are first class citizens of India and then we can overcome the narrow perceptions about alienation”.

The only Christian MP from the BJP also urged voters in the region to correct their perception of the party. “The BJP is not your enemy. It is a party with a humane face and wants to better he lives of the people of the Northeast,” he said.