Tragedy in the North-East

Romesh Thapar BETTER late than never. The gathering of national party loaders to assist the Prime Minister in sketching the guidelines for a slow, step-by-step, negotiated settlement of the profound problems of the North-East will, hopefully, defuse some of the passion that is now stirring. Those demonstrations by minority groups should never have been encouraged by the ruling party at the Centre. Such collisions are inevitable when negotiations are exhausted. At the moment, they only fuel the fires of communalism.