Every time cadres of an organisation surrender -be it orchestrated, coerced or voluntary- it is usually the outfit too which stands to gain a lot. A surrender by particular cadres is an act of purification. The doves are purged out, and the hawks remain. Those who stick to the guns are inevitably die-hards who are committed to their cause, whatever it might be. For them, the means and the ends are all that matter.

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.

How connotations change! Not-so-many years back the term ISI, to Indians, meant integrity, quality. Now to Indians in general and those who belong to the Northeast, particularly Assam, the very term is something to beware of. It is more than just an innocuous appellation - it is anathema. It is an organisation that threatens to destroy the political fabric of the region. Matters, as they are, are bad enough. Ethnic equations are always difficult to understand. But Pakistan's disruptionist agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) understands it well. Well enough to chalk out a plan to blow the wavering demographic equilibrium beyond redemption. Throw life so much out of gear that peace will never return to the region.

The tragedy of the Naga political movement has been the annihilation of Nagas by Nagas themselves. Nagas have remained divided along various lines. Radicals and moderates (from killing of Theyieu Sakhrie to that of Kaito Sema) among the insurrectionists themselves. Undergrounds and overgrounds (from killing of Imkongliba Ao to that of the Kevichusa brothers). And somewhere complicating all these delicate equations and rendering all calculations awry are the perennial inter-tribe schisms. And politicians exploiting all these to the hilt, giving all killings a tribal hue. The blight continues.

Two individuals, who have taken much interest in the revival and development of the legendary Stillwell Road are prominent politicians of Assam and the North East Arun Sarma, AGP member of the Rajya Sabha, and Prodip Hazarika, Assam's Minister for Transport. Both of them held extensive discussion with the Myanmar delegates at the conference on Regional Cooperation at Kunming, in China's Yunnan Province, and some talks also with some of the Chinese officials and academic.

Elections are one psephological carnival in a democracy that politicians revel in celebrating. Like conventional fetishist rituals, elections too are times for a changing. The old order does not changeth yielding place to the new. Just, the old and the relatively old garbs are discarded. Come polls, and you find a host of them in new attires. If they are not in a trendy set of clothes, then they certainly talk different.

The country suffers due to crisis of perception and lack of credible action. This applies more to the North-Eastern region. The Britishers talked about the multi stage isolation of the region from the country and that of the hills and the plains within the region. Our own academicians talked about the 'splendid isolation'. They misinterpreted the society and culture; gave colonial bias to our history. We uncritically accepted their ideas; followed in their footsteps; promoted all round social, cultural, ethnic and religious divide. They introduced the racist thinking in our society; we made assertion of separate identity and social distancing' profitable and most alluring. Ethnocentrism occupied the central stage. Certain sections developed vested interest in generating sense of alienation among the people.

Is it possible that a lone, soft-spoken cricket match referee from little Lanka could have more brains (and balls) than all the politicians, bureaucrats, economists, technocrats, industrialists, experts and "thinkers" in all of India put together? Not merely on a matter involving cricket alone, but on a touchy, sentimental issue that symbolises the neglect of one of the most beautiful parts of this country as well?

When I was 18 and studying journalism in London, I received an invitation to dinner from Angami Zapu Phizo, the leader of Naga insurgency. As I stepped into his tiny study to shake his hand, the first impression was, "How small he is!" Yet, one could not but marvel at the passion, energy and commitment which fired this slight figure.

The other evening, I was participating in a panel discussion hosted by Vinod Dua on Zee Television News, as the election results were coming in from Bihar, Haryana, Manipur and Orissa. The major surprise that day - at least for the political pundits and the English-speaking, writing journalists, was the manner in which Laloo Prasad Yadav and his Rashtriya Janata Dal team made such a strong showing in Bihar.

THE old road used to be a bumpy gravel path. Of course, the pine forests have always been there. But now there is a new road, a smart maca-damised lane that hugs the bends of the hills near Shillong as it speeds toward the picturesque North East Hill University, surely one of the most beautiful university campuses in India.

Paresh Baruah, commander-in-chief of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), still loves a good game of soccer. But a guerrilla's gruelling routine doesn't allow him that luxury. At 14, Baruah played for the Dibrugarh district team as goalkeeper. Two years later the boy from Jeraigon made it to the Assam junior team. By the time he was 18, Indian Railways had offered him a job.

On Sunday, the faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland led by S.S. Khaplang announced that it was ready for a dialogue with the Government of India and for a ceasefire with Indian security forces in all areas dominated by the Nagas.

THE other morning in New Delhi, the sun beat down on a small group of people outside the Bangladesh High Commission as they prepared to meet the diplomats inside, armed with a few sheets of paper. In the background, a few dozen activists shouted slogans demanding action against north-eastern insurgents who are based in Bangladesh. The mandatory press briefing was held for the television crews who shoved mikes in front of the band of members of Parlia-ment - six men and one woman - as they waited to be called in.

Talking about refugees in South Asia, the following crises instantly come to mind: Tamils from Sri Lanka and Tibetans from China in India and Nepal, the Rohingyas (Muslims) from Myanmar in Bangladesh, the Lhotsampas (Nepali-speaking people) from southern Bhutan in Nepal and Afghans in Pakistan. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, there are today an estimated 12 million refugees and about 20 million to 25 million internally displaced persons in the world. South Asia alone constitutes nearly 12 per cent of the total global refugee population. In fact, South Asia has the fourth largest refugee population in the world.

Tripartite talks have been going on for some time between the All-Assam Students' Union (AASU), the Centre and the State Government for the "full implementation" of the Assam Accord of 1985. The next round of talks will be held in New Delhi on May 31. The AASU is now demanding cent per cent reservation of seats for the "indigenous" people of Assam in the local bodies, Assembly and Parliament. Reportedly, the demand has already been accepted "in principle".

At the Northeastern Zonal Council meeting in January, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, said that Pakistan's ISI was behind the insurgency in the region. Others accuse groups such as the drug mafia, the intelligence agencies and Christian missionaries of fermenting unrest in the region. But they do not explain why people join the underground. They would not unless they were alienated. Hence the need to look at the causes.

From the 1930s, the effort to cope with the changes expressed itself in the form of new organisations. The Bodos formed associations such as the Bodo Chhatra Sammilani for their education, welfare and to standardise their language. The Notified Areas Act was amended in 1947 to prevent land alienation and indebtedness, but the situation did not improve. The Constitution did not provide to the plains tribes the safeguards available to the hill tribes mainly because of the Congress leader, Gopinath Bordoloi's contention that they were being assimilated with the rest of the population. Slowly the Bodos came to view the Ahoms as the main enemy.

Who created the Frankenstein of tribal militancy in Tripura? This is the question that is doing the rounds in the state after the recent bloodshed between tribals and Bengalis. This is the first time that an exclusively tribal outfit which styles itself as the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), propped up by the underground National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), has captured political power independently. Though the IPFT's ascent to power in the Autonomous District Council (ADC) in May this year is said to have come through the barrels of the NLFT guns, it is undoubtedly a significant development.

It was a little while ago. I was in Imphal in one of those charming, tiny no-star hostels so typical of the North-East. "Can you tell me on which channel I can get Doordarshan?", I asked the cheerful room boy. "What is that?" he answered, genuinely puzzled. "Just ask the cable operator", I suggested. He soon returned. "I have asked the cable operator but he says he can't give it, because no one wants it."

India's Northeast is one of the country's most diverse, colourful and enchanting regions - but it is also one of the least known. This ugly fact remains a reality more than 50 years after independence. Whether it is the metropolitan media or the television channels that bombard our print space and air channels with information (largely useless) and entertainment of various kinds, the northeast remains a black hole in the collective memory of India, except when it comes to insurgencies, floods, explosions and ethnic strife. There is little else that is reported or finds its way through the ignorant and disinterested on media news desks.

India's Northeast is one of the country's most diverse, colourful and enchanting regions - but it is also one of the least known. This ugly fact remains a reality more than 50 years after independence. Whether it is the metropolitan media or the television channels that bombard our print space and air channels with information (largely useless) and entertainment of various kinds, the northeast remains a black hole in the collective memory of India, except when it comes to insurgencies, floods, explosions and ethnic strife. There is little else that is reported or finds its way through the ignorant and disinterested on media news desks.

India's Northeast is one of the country's most diverse, colourful and enchanting regions - but it is also one of the least known. This ugly fact remains a reality more than 50 years after independence. Whether it is the metropolitan media or the television channels that bombard our print space and air channels with information (largely useless) and entertainment of various kinds, the northeast remains a black hole in the collective memory of India, except when it comes to insurgencies, floods, explosions and ethnic strife. There is little else that is reported or finds its way through the ignorant and disinterested on media news desks.

When smiling, top Indian officials stood side by side with senior leaders of the Hizb ul Mujahideen, the predominant (some would say the only) Kashmiri insurgent force (the others comprise of non-Kashmiris, especially Pakistanis and Afghans) fighting Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir, it appeared that they were cheering a major breakthrough for peace in that tragedy. But the smiles were too early, even in that bright drawing room in Srinagar, taking too much for granted from those behind the men in masks and those without.