Aizawl: Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma Saturday asked the Narendra Modi government to leave out the state from the proposed India-Myanmar border fencing. This demand comes at a time when the state’s NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC) has announced its intentions to go ahead with its protests planned against the move.
“The state government is opposed to erecting a fence along the Mizoram-Myanmar border and also wants the FMR to stay,” a statement from the Chief Minister’s Officer quoted Lalduhoma, whose Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) was voted to power in the assembly election held last November, as saying at a meeting the NGOCC. FMR refers to the Free Movement Regime (FMR) — an arrangement introduced by the Modi government during its first term, which allows tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.
The proposed border fencing will effectively halt this free movement.
“The present international border is demarcated by the colonial British government under the policy of divide and rule (and therefore is) an imposed border,” Lalduhoma further said. “The brothers are divided in order to ensure that we will never be a large nation. Our undying dream is to reunite under a single administrative unit”.
While announcing a border fencing along the entire 1,643 km India-Myanmar border earlier this month, Home Minister Shah said the move was aimed at enhancing security. The move comes at a time when there are allegations that insurgent groups from across the border are fuelling ethnic violence between Manipur’s Valley-based Meiteis, a non-tribal group, and the hills-based Kuki tribes.
The NGOCC is a conglomerate of the central committees of the Young Mizo Association (YMA), Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or women’s organisation, Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or elders’ association, Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or students’ federation, and Mizo Students Union (MSU). The group, which wields considerable political influence in Mizoram, has announced protests against the proposed border at Aizawl on 21 February.
An NGOCC delegation led by its chairman Lalhmachhuana — president of the central committee of the Young Mizo Association — announced at the meeting Saturday that it would go ahead with its plans.
The group had been coordinating with the civil societies of Nagaland and had written to the Centre and the state government about their stance on the issue, the CMO statement quoted chairman Lalhmachhuana as having said.
This came after the chief minister assured him that he had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to urge him not to construct a fence on the Mizoram side of the India-Myanmar border, even if the Manipur side has to be fenced.
“In view of the responses I received in Delhi, I feel that we have nothing to worry about,” the CMO statement quoted the chief minister as saying.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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