The tripartite talks with the ULFA in which the Centre and the Assam government will participate are still some time away. The second round of talks between the ULFA and the Centre began in Delhi on Saturday but it was merely to work out the modalities for the actual dialogue. The government discussed the lines on which the parleys would progress. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi made it clear that the stage had been set for the dialogue. The ULFA team discussed the cease fire ground rules and urged the Centre to reciprocate. It wanted the number of designated camps for their militants to be raised from three to nine in Assam. They also wanted them renamed. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi reiterated that the demand for a separate state would not be entertained. The demand of the KUNLF, the NDFB and the UPDS, some smaller rebel groups for such statehood would not be on the agenda. He however said that a meeting with Assam’s ethnic militant group, Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) was to be held in Delhi on the same day the ULFA meeting was scheduled.
All this seems still beating about the bush. About a year has passed since ULFA Chairman Arabinda Rajkhawa and some other delegates from the rebel group met Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh extending the olive branch. Since then much water has flowed down the river with hurdles posed by anti-talks leader Paresh Barua who is still a fugitive in Myanmar. While the pro-peace ULFA leaders appear to have dropped the demand for a sovereign Assam, controversy exists over the extent of autonomy to be granted. Other rebel outfits are complicating the issue. The Congress is back in office in Assam after the Assembly poll. It is high time that the decisive parleys with the ULFA got off the ground.