In the New Secretariat area on the outskirts of Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, overlooking the mountain ranges that stretch as far as the Chindwin valley in Myanmar, stands the cemetery where A.Z. Phizo lies buried. Ringed by cherry and pine trees, the grave has a headstone inscribed, "Here lies the father of the nation". The riddle of Nagaland lies in that odd parenthood. Phizo, founder of the Naga National Council that propagated an independent Naga state after Indian Independence, fled India in 1960 in a coffin, to land in Dhaka and then to London under a Peruvian passport. He returned to his loved Naga Hills three decades later, again in a coffin but forever asleep. But he is no longer the guiding angel of the movement he founded, having alienated himself from the underground by refusing to criticise the 1975 Shillong Accord that made the Nagas forego the demand for sovereignty.

NPF NEIPHU RIO: Chief ministerial aspirant Rio's selling point is the peaceful settlement of the Naga problem

While Phizo spent his last years in exile in frustration, and on Pakistani dole, his cause was transferred to his two former disciples, Isak Chisi Swu and Tuingaleng Muivah, under a new banner, National Socialist Council of Nagalim (nscn). It was formed in 1980 after years of bloodbath between the "Accordists" and the separatists. Though Nagaland became a state within the Indian Union in 1963, following a 16-point agreement in 1960, the life in the land of two million people has never been de-linked from the issue of sovereignty. There have been elections at almost regular intervals since 1964, with elected representatives making the laws in the state Assembly. But even a child in Kohima will tell you who wields the real power. It is the underground. The "revenues" of the parallel government are pure extortion-10 per cent of every development project, a monthly levy on commercial establishments, Rs 5,000 a year for a truck and twice the sum for a bus. The rule by underground is accepted by Naga society. As M. Vero, president of the Naga Hoho, the supreme body of the state's 29 major and minor tribes, says, "We have no existence over the ground or underground. We are one Naga people."

However, the NSCN is of late responding to India's peace overtures. In 1997, Delhi announced a unilateral ceasefire that is still in force. After nine years of secret discussions, in places like Amsterdam and Bangkok, the Swu-Muivah duo visited Delhi last month. They carried Indian passports this time (they had visited India once before unofficially, holding Bangladeshi passports). In the proud psyche of Naga patriots, the colour of the passport is the first indication of flexibility on the issue of accepting a solution within the Indian Constitution.

CONGRESS S.C. JAMIR: Despite Sonia Gandhi's visit, the chances of Jamir (extreme left) are slim

With the NSCN leaders flying back to their camp in Bangkok, leaving a strong hope of the talks moving to a happy conclusion, Nagaland gears up to elect its 10th assembly on February 26. For the 60 seats, there are, besides the ruling Congress, under Chief Minister and state party chief S.C. Jamir, the Naga People's Front (NPF), the main opposition party with the rooster symbol, and a host of others, including 38 BJP candidates.

Does it mean that the opposition votes will get split to the Congress' advantage? That's unlikely, as Thenoucho, working president of NPF, explains, "because the fight is between the 'hand' and the 'cock', and our society, which lives in the villages, will make sure that whoever has the best chance against the hand does win. After the election, every non-Congress member will follow the cock".

Thenoucho may be, well, cocky, but most opposition parties are ready for a post-poll alliance under the NPF. For, across the maze of tribes in the hill state, the refrain is that Jamir is "an obstacle to peace". There has been an exodus of ministers and MLAs from his party. Prominent defector Neiphiu Rio, former home minister, is the front-runner in the chief ministerial race, should the NPF form the next government. "Jamir is scuttling a settlement," he says. Others who matter agree: Vero, Naga Mothers' Association chief Neidonuo and Reverend Dr V.K. Nuh, general secretary of the Council of Naga Baptist Churches.

MEGHALAYA AND TRIPURA

Sense Of Deja Vu

The scenario is familiar-a fractured verdict in one state and the clout of the insurgents in the other

Ever since the announcement of the poll schedule on January 11, heavily armed tribal insurgents have been on a rampage in the Marxist bastion of Tripura, killing 38 communist cadres and supporters, ahead of the February 26 elections to the 60-member state Assembly. The ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front headed by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, with 42 members in the present Assembly, faces a combined opposition of the Congress and its tribal ally, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT). Says CPI(M) spokesman Gautam Das: "The NLFT has been openly asking people in the interior areas to vote for Congress and INPT candidates." INPT leader Rabindra Debbarma on his part accuses the CPM of unleashing its armed ally, the Tripura Liberation Front, against his party and the Congress. Tripura's two million voters have the unenviable task of choosing their representatives from among the 254 contestants in the fray in yet another election held under the shadow of the gun.   HIGH STAKES: The performance of Sarkar (left)   and charisma of Sangma will be put to test Meghalaya has always had a fractured verdict and an unstable government. As many as six governments, with four different chief ministers, ruled the state since the last assembly polls in 1998. The present government headed by F.A. Khonglam is led by the Nationalist Congress Party. But the NCP refused him a ticket, though he was an associate member of the party, on grounds of "corruption". Khonglam, while denying the charges, is now contesting on a ticket given to him by the regional Hill State People's Democratic Party. There are 333 candidates in the fray with no political groupings. The key players, all going it alone, are the NCP, Congress, BJP, Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement, HSPDP, Meghalaya Democratic Party and the United Democratic Party. The khnam, interestingly, has been formed largely by former leaders of the powerful Khasi Students' Union. The man with the biggest stake in the polls is NCP leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma. It remains to be seen if his charisma will work again. But all that Meghalaya's 1.2 million voters would want is a government that works-for a full term. -Wasbir Hussain

Jamir, a consistent critic of the NSCN, would have lost the 1998 election but for a poll boycott call by the Hoho. While the opposition parties obeyed the order, Jamir didn't. He got a walkover with the Congress winning all but one seat, including 43 without contest. Using the fluke victory, he pampered the rival NSCN group led by Khaplang, a Burmese Naga. Khaplang activists, about 3,500 in number (against the nscn's 6,000), are now strutting about in Mokokchung, the chief minister's home district inhabited by his Ao tribe, and the two Myanmar border districts of Mon and Tuensang, as his Praetorian guards. This election is, therefore, to a large extent, a proxy for the internecine war of the underground between Swu and Khaplang.

Jamir has spoilt his case further by getting the Nagaland pcc to publish a 16-page booklet called The Bedrock of Naga Society. The booklet, which is an impassioned advocacy for the Nagas' nationhood claim, also scalds the Naga ego. "We were a group of heterogeneous, primitive and diverse tribes living in far-flung villages ... A village does not make a nation."

As the Naga society heaped scorn on Bedrock, with the Naga Students' Federation making a bonfire of thousands of copies, Jamir wrote his party's death warrant. But why? Close aides say: NPF may come to power, but lasting peace with the NSCN is possible only if the Centre compromises on sovereignty, which it can't, given its own intention as well as political realities. The only hope, other than a military operation, is to bank on the middle class in Nagaland which has seen through the "bluff" of Naga nationhood and would like their state to be integrated in India. "We may lose the battle but not the war," says a Jamir confidant.

That makes sense. Earlier, whenever the underground had agreed to accept a settlement short of nationhood, its negotiators were scorned as traitors and guns blazed till they were liquidated and a new and more recalcitrant group took over. It may well happen again. Though generations have passed since Phizo had the last glimpse of his land, the NSCN's rustic army is still a nationless people caught in a time warp. Their tribes are varied, and so are their languages. Sitting at the Ceasefire Monitoring Centre camp at Dimapur in the plains, they use their radio telephone sets to speak to each other in broken Hindi and pidgin English, belonging nowhere and espousing an unknown cause. If their leaders accept a peace short of nationhood, it'll be the turn of rival Khaplang to hold the torch. For Nagas, Phizo remains forever the father of a non-nation.