The frantic air-dashes by Union home ministry officials to Assam is telling. The possibility of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence fishing in the troubled demographic waters of the state is not a mere bogey any more. What was an impending threat only a few years back is now a reality. What was a pernicious pathogen till yesterday, has today infected the host and spread to such an extent that its debilitating effects are already beginning to show. The days of crying wolf for politicians are over -- the most subversive activities in Assam today carry the ISI mark. Demographic realities in the state are murky enough. Ethnic equations are always difficult to understand. But the ISI understands it better than most. Well, enough to upset the wavering demographic equilibrium beyond redemption -- throw life so much out of gear that peace will never return.

Had he not become the leader of the dreaded insurrectionist organisation, he would probably have been serving in a mission. The last time that negotiations were held between the Indian government and Naga guerrillas in the late Sixties, playing a key role was a suave young man in his mid-30s. Another 30 summers later, the same man is set to play a bigger role in the current negotiations. Meet the soft-spoken, deeply-religious chairman of the underground National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), Isak Chishi Swu.