THE CHIEF FACILITATOR of the peace talks between ULFA and the Indian Government and noted novelist Dr Indira Goswami suddenly fell ill and is admitted into a city hospital. She suffered a mild cerebral stroke and was immediately admitted to the intensive critical care unit (ICCU) of Guwahati Neurological Research Center (GNRC).

 "She is stable and recovering," GNRC spokesperson Manoj Kumar Deka, told newspersons.

Dr Goswami was admitted to another private hospital Thursday morning after she complained "uneasiness", but was referred to GNRC few hours later.

Jnanpith award winning novelist Indira Goswami is popularly known by her pen name Mamoni Raisom Goswami.

Goswami received the most prestigious literary award in India, the Jnanpith Award in 2001 for her praiseworthy work.  Dr  Goswami is also widely acclaimed for her research on Ramayana literature. She was a professor in Modern Indian Language Department of Delhi University till her retirement earlier this year.

Recently she chaired a session of International Hindi Sannmelan held at USA.

These days she was busy penning two historical novels, one on a Bodo icon and another on ‘Ahom King Rudra Sinha’, apart from her hectic schedule attending public meetings and literary sessions from Dhubri to Sadiya.

Dr Goswami is an ardent advocate of peace in Assam and she has put lots of effort for this. Dr Goswami was appointed the chief coordinator of the PCG (People’s Consultative Group) formed by ULFA to facilitate its talk with Delhi. The most cohesive peace process by PCG begun in September 2005. The group was involved in three rounds of talks before it broke down in October 2006. The process came to a halt after government insisted on a letter committing ULFA’s direct participation. The writer resigned after the initiative did not make much progress despite a meeting with officials at the Prime Minister’s Office.

She and few other senior citizens formed ‘Nagarik Shanti Mancha’, Asom to bring derailed peace process back on track. But she soon resigned from the NSM realizing its failure to facilitate talks and decided to concentrate more actively on the PCG.

Dr Goswami had convened a meeting of the group at her residence last Tuesday to resume the process. They decided to send a letter to the ULFA leadership in the next couple of days, to respond to government’s urge for "direct talks".