Swaraj Kaushal"s allegations against the Prime Minister must be taken more seriously than the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary for the Northeast would want one to. With political circles rife with stories that Kaushal had actually been "sacked" or that Kaushal had actually been "removed", the interlocutor for the Indian government decided to go on the offensive. This he did in a first person account which appeared in a New Delhi newspaper on July 25.

Whatever might have been the actual reason because of which Kaushal had to perforce put in his papers, he did raise a point in his write-up. He said the Prime Minister has no perception of the problems of the Northeast. The statement, on the face of it, may only be the diatribe of a disgruntled man fallen foul with his ex-boss. But, hang on, there is more to it than meets the eye.

Atal Behari Vajpayee is as good as gone for this term. Why doesn"t one check out his Northeast balance sheet? Has Vajpayee actually ever evinced even an iota of the knowledge that he does happen to know what the Northeast is about, why the problems are what they are? So far, he has not. Vajpayee has made those customary trips to the region and made cosmetic statements about how much economic development is the key to all evils in the Northeast. But what has he actually done about it? Nothing - except some rubbish about an economic package that is as ridiculous as the Tughlaquesque Rs 6,100 cr largesse doled out by HD Deve Gowda.

A person"s understanding of a situation is reflected on how he or she handles the issue. Mere knowledge does not necessarily foreordain deep understanding. Everyone knows lack of economic development is the root of most evils in the Northeast. The question is why is something what it is? In the Northeast, every "ill" has a different root. And the region, we all know, is replete with these "ills". There is no one panacea that is going to work. Vajpayee has, so far, not done anything that would exhibit the kind of perception of the Northeast that Kaushal accused him of to be lacking in.

No one can dispute the fact that this Prime Minister is erudite. And it shows - when he speaks. But it is difficult to gauge what Vajpayee knows of the Naga issue. What is easy to say is that he does not know what Nagas (particularly of the undergournd kind) detest. Parallels cannot be drawn either with the ceasefire agreement of 1964 or the Peace Mission efforts that followed. The Indian government"s callousness in dealing especially with Michael Scott and Jayaprakash Narayan is well-documented. There might be essential differences between the mediators of yesterday and the interlocutor of today, but what remains a fact is that you do not drop/change/sack/remove negotiators midway through a thorny negotiating process.

It is easy to show a negotiator the door, it is zillion times more difficult to establish some rapport with the other side. What K Padmanabhaiah will now have to do as far as confidence-building measures go is to start from scratch. What a waste of time and labour! The Indian government (read, Vajpayee) has not learnt its lessons from the Sixties" experience. One cannot wear out the Naga underground leadership. Just like that. Like them or hate them, they are made of slightly tougher material than the government would give them credit for.

You don"t play around with a process that is touted to bring about lasting peace. The history of the Naga insurrectionist movement has been a history of failed negotiations and accords. History, as Karl Marx rightly pointed out, does repeat itself first as a tragedy and then as a farce. Kaushal"s unceremonious exit raises doubts about the Vajpayee government"s sincerity. It seems hell-bent on reducing the ongoing peace process to a farce the Northeast has never seen before.

Ignorance and apathy stem from each other. Its all about the chicken and the egg syndrome. It is difficult to pinpoint the Atal Behari Vajpayee government"s understanding and consequent handling of the Naga issue to either ignorance or apathy. Either way signs are ominous.