The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has not given up hopes of reopening the peace negotiations with the Government, and it is particularly waiting for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to respond.

Hiranya Saikia, a member of the People’s Consultative Group (PCG) appointed by the ULFA in September 2005 to hold talks with the government, said there was a strong feeling that Manmohan Singh was a “better person” and that he would soon revive the peace negotiations.

Saikia is among eleven members of the PCG headed by noted author and Jnanpith award winner Indira Goswami.

“Though the Government kept sending feelers for negotiations since 2001, it was only after Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister that things actually moved from the ULFA side,” Saikia told media persons. Saikia is believed to be close to ULFA’s armed wing chief Paresh Barua.

Saikia released the copy of a letter he recently wrote to the Prime Minister in which he has expressed the ULFA’s indirect faith in Singh. “Since 2001, a number of efforts were made by the Government of India to initiate a dialogue, but there were no worthwhile results. However, after the general elections in 2004, new hopes were generated by the goodwill of Your Excellency,” Saikia wrote in his letter to the PM.

The letter said it was for the first time in 26 years that ULFA actually responded to the Government with Indira Goswami writing her first letter to the Prime Minister “with the blessings of Col Paresh Barua, the chief of army staff, ULFA.” “While there is a general impression that Manmohan Singh is a good person, the fact that he is also an MP from Assam, prompted Barua to say yes to the talks,” Saikia said.

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