Leaders of the major Naga insurgent group NSCN (I-M) will meet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani in Delhi on January nine and discuss ways to resolve the Naga issue.
"They will be arriving here on January eighth and meeting the prime minister the next day," Advani told reporters in Delhi. The deputy prime minister would also be present at the meeting.
This will be first visit to India by the top NSCN (I-M) leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah in the last 30 years.
Though no major accord is likely to be signed between the government and the insurgent outfit, the high-level parleys are expected to pave the way for the launch of a political process involving the NSCN (I-M).
While NSCN (I-M) general secretary Muivah, who already possesses an Indian passport, is expected to arrive from The Hague, Swu, the outfit's chairman, and three others have been issued passports by the Indian mission in Oslo and will arrive in Delhi from the Norwegian capital, official sources said.
The government has already acceded to the NSCN's demands of lifting the ban on the outfit and withdrawing cases against Muivah for an alleged plot to assassinate Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir.
Since the 1997 Centre-NSCN(I-M) ceasefire accord, Swu and Muivah have been holding negotiations with the Centre's interlocutor K Padmanabhaiah and successive Intelligence Bureau chiefs, including present Director K P Singh, in third countries like the Netherlands and Thailand.