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.

He, however, said there was a sustained move on the part of the Government to project Paresh Barua as a hardliner and also as being in the grip of the ISI. “This is not correct. It was Paresh Barua who actually set the ball rolling by responding to the government moves,” Saikia, who claimed to be “actively involved” as a facilitator since 2001, said.

Though talks between the Government and the PCG have remained off since June 2006, “unofficial attempts” were still on to revive the process. “But utterances occasionally made by some army officers definitely create serious problems,” he said.

Saikia particularly pointed at Lt Gen BS Jaswal, GOC of the 4 Corps for allegedly threatening to send their bodies home if parents of ULFA cadres did not ask their sons to give up the violent path. “The newly-appointed GOC is trying to derail the peace process at a crucial juncture,” he said. “There are various elements both within and outside the administration who do not want the peace process to succeed,” Saikia had written in his letter to the PM.