Referring to the situation in Manipur arising out of the announcement of the Cease-fire agreement, the Home Minister said the Centre is making all efforts to deal with the situation. A high level delegation led by the Minister of State, Shri I.D. Swami is now in Manipur to talk to various organizations like the AMSU, AMUCO, MEIRPHAIBIS (women organization) and others to know their views on issues arising out of the Cease-fire extension. He informed the members that the report of the team will be discussed in the meeting convened by the Prime Minister on Sunday. Shri Advani said the Centre is also in touch with the NSCN(I/M) on the issue.

    In response to the unanimous appeal from the Consultative Committee members that there should not be any violation of territorial integrity of the concerned States, Shri Advani said the Government would be willing to have a resolution passed in Parliament on the protection of the territorial integrity of the North-Eastern States to allay fears and apprehensions in the minds of the people. When Committee Members, Shri S.K. Bwiswmuthiary, Dr. Joyanta Rongpi, Shri Somnath Chatterjee and others felf that there should have been wider consultations with all the State Governments and other organizations before signing the Agreement with the NSCN(I/M), Shri Advani told the members that it is not correct that the Centre has not consulted with the State Governments.

    The Chief Ministers were consulted on different occasions on the issue, and there was a unanimous view for the extension of the truce to bring peace in the region. He also mentioned about the all Party Delegation from Manipur which called on him before he left for Germany and Turkey.

    The Home Secretary also briefed the Committee members on the revised ground rules of the Cease-fire agreement. Giving a resume of the Cease-fire truce with the NSCN(I/M) right from 1997 Shri Kamal Pande said there are enough safe-guards in the ground rules and clarified that no area can be defined as Naga inhibited area, outside Nagaland.

    Shri Somnath Chatterjee, CPI(M) referring to the Kamtapur Liberation Organization’s demand for a separate State said the movement is projecting Kamtapuri as a separate language and cultural identity. He said they are also resorting to militant activities with the support of ULFA in the North Bengal areas. They have their base in Bhutan. In this connection it was stated that the Centre has sensitized it the Government of West Bengal to deal with the situation. A number of decisions were taken to contain the emerging militant activity in the area. Even though, the situation in Tamil Nadu was not in the Agenda of today’s discussion, Shri Viduthalai Virumbi of the DMK stated that a grave situation has arisen in the State following what he called, unprecedented arrest of the former Chief Minister, Shri M. Karunanidhi and two Union Ministers, Shri Murasoli Maran and Shri T.R. Balu and demanded that the Centre should stake stringent action against the State Government.

    Replying to Shri Virumbi’s anguish the Home Minister said the Centre has taken cognizance of events of Tamil Nadu, the Consultative Committee had the unanimous view that the unprecedented development were totally uncalled for in a democratic set-up. Shri Advani said it was the public sense of outrage against the developments that made the State Government to retrace its steps. Dr. Karan Singh and Shri G.M. Banatwalla also disapproved the way the State Governor was recalled. Majority of the Members expressed that there should be wider consideration of Centre-State relations to avoid such things happening in future.

    The threats held out by some organizations for the Temple Construction on the disputed site at Ayodhya also came up for discussion. The Home Minister told the Members that the Centre is duty bound to maintain status quo as on January 7, 1993 in the disputed site. Till the title suits pending in Allahabad High Court are finally adjudicated, the disputed site can not be handed over to any Party, he said.

    The following members S/Shri S.K. Bwiswmuthiary, Holkhomang Haokip, Jagdambi Prasad yadav, G.M. Banatwalla, Mohan S. Delkar, Somnath Chatterjee, Ali Mohd. Naik, Saiduzzaman, Sahib Singh Verma and Joyanta Rongpi all from Lok Sabha and S/Shri Devi Prasad Singh, Dina Nath Mishra, S. Viduthalai Virumbi, Sikander Bakht, debabrata Biswa, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Dr. Karan Singh, Gen. Sankar . Roy Chowdhury, Jayanta Bhattacharya, Mirza Abdul Rashid and Balbir . Punj all from Rajya Sabha attended the Meeting. The Minister of State, Shri CH. Vidya Sagar Rao was also present.