"Vajpayeeji, if indeed there can be anyone in India who can extend a hand of reassurance and reconciliation to the Naga people, it can only be you", writes renowned film director Mahesh Bhatt to the Prime Minister after his maiden trip to Nagaland.

Dear Vajpayeeji,

Greetings! I was in Nagaland between 23rd to 28th July, during the days leading to the fateful meeting of Chief Ministers of the North East you had convened in Delhi on 27th July to review the extension of ceasefire in Nagaland. I wish, through this letter to convey to you not only my feelings, but also the voice of a large section of the people of Nagaland, a voice refreshing in its ability to transcend the shackles of history and call upon all Naga people to maintain restraint and practice peace, despite any and all provocation; a voice rich in its collective wisdom and its vision for co-existence; a voice which can only be spoken by people who have undergone immense suffering and pain and who have had the collective will, fortitude and courage to transcend the mental and emotional turmoil and shackles such suffering can induce. I beseech you to lend a few moments of your valuable time to reading this letter.

Vajpayeeji, I feel compelled to write this letter to you as there seems to be a concerted attempt to block out, to muffle, or rather to silence the voice, indeed this overwhelming voice of the Naga people calling for peace and brotherhood amongst all people inside Nagaland and out, from reaching you and the people of India. I write this letter to you, as I believe you are one person who through the depth of your experience and strength of personhood can understand the emotions of a people who are more misunderstood and misrepresented than anyone else in the Indian sub-continent. If indeed there can be anyone in India who can extend a hand of reassurance and reconciliation to the Naga people, it can only be you.

I mean this not as a facetious statement. I truly feel that you are the only person today, who can step out of the pages of history and start scripting a new chapter in history. Sir, when I informed my family members and friends that I was going to Nagaland they all thought that I was literally mad. They warned me that the Naga people are a violent people and that I was going to a place engulfed in war. I was told that I would be kidnapped a-la-Rajkumar style (the way the dreaded sandalwood smuggler Veerappan had kidnapped veteran Kannada actor Rajkumar and held two state governments hostage). I decided to go, however, to try to understand for myself why this region is in so much turmoil. I wanted to spend a few moments of my life living with the people of Nagaland. I sought to live with and explore the world of their dreams, their hopes, their aspirations; I wanted to literally get under their skin and feel for myself what it means to be a people who have been engulfed with turmoil for over 50 years.

The extent to which we, in mainland India, are trapped in unreal, and unfair understanding of the people of Nagaland became painfully conscious only after I began my journey to know, to reach out, to the Naga people.It has been at the same time a shattering yet humbling experience. Shattering, to see the extent of suffering the people have endured for over 5 decades; humbling to see that despite all this, the mood of the people is one suffused with humanism, filled with the urge to maintain peace and harmony, and of the desire to make a new beginning.

On the 27th of July, 2001, the day you had convened a meeting of the Chief Ministers of the North Eastern states, the people in Nagaland, Assam, Manipur,Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Mizoram awaited not the decision of the Central Government, for it was a foregone conclusion that the extension of ceasefire to all areas was going to be withdrawn as a consequence to the protests in Manipur and other states. What people across the region awaited was the response, rather the reaction of the different Naga groups to this decision. A sense of uneasiness and fear seemed to engulf the region. In a metaphorical sense, the bugles of war were being imagined.

The predominant feeling in Nagaland that day was that the imminent withdrawal of the Bangkok declaration extending the ceasefire was unfair and unilateral.Most people felt that the issue had become politicized in the different states of the North East by different parties for partisan interests and that a deliberate attempt was being made to generate, build and sustain an anti-Naga people feeling in the entire region.

People from all walks of life expressed their sense of sadness at the manner in which attempts were made to stoke the embers of hostility, fear and distrust between non-Nagas and Nagas. Most people feel that all this has been done deliberately by vested interests, groups and parties to caricature the Nagas as a bloodthirsty and violent people so as to ensure that a mass hysteria is created in the North East region against the Nagas. A predominant section of Naga society feel apprehensive that all this will ultimately pull down the positive impacts of a ceasefire which has been in place for three years; a period which opened a space and presented an opportunity for the Naga people to dare to dream and build a new future.

Sir, please sample the following voices, which were reflected in newspapers in Kohima on the 27th, and contrast it with the paranoia sought to be generated elsewhere in the country. " Appeal to all neighbours and communities concerned to maintain restraint so that situation does not go out of hand….

a) time has now come to demonstrate the ability of the Nagas to live in peace and harmony among themselves and with their neighbours (and that) Nagas are courageous enough to do so or to at least , keep making the attempt.

"Naga problem is a political problem which should be seriously dealt with since it has become very fragile and involves sentiments and emotions and therefore called for rational deliberation to hammer out an amicable solution to the problem".

Statement of the Chief Minister, S.C. Jamir, Nagaland Page, 27th July, 2001. On the 17th of July, 2001 a major meeting of Nagas from both Nagaland and Manipur was convened in Kohima by the Naga Hoho in which a call was given to exercise restraint and make a new beginning by starting a dialogue with the Meiteis of Manipur. Two responses to the widely reported Call of Naga civil society is reflective of the call of the Naga civil society to maintain peace and good will:

"The Naga Hoho statement calling for dialogue and understanding with the Meiteis, at this time of crisis, is balanced and fair. We want to congratulate the Naga leadership for their wisdom…".

"The Naga Hoho statement calling for dialogue and understanding appeared in the Imphal media today. It is so wonderful and helpful at this time. My deepest concern is that the Nagas will not betray their witness for Christ in this crisis with the Meiteis.

Let the Nagas not take this lightly because long-term consequences for good or evil depend on this."

(Quote of two respected Meitei citizens of Imphal, reported by Charles Chasie, ‘Nagas are beginning to win hearts’, Northeast Herald, page 7, 27th July, 2001).