Months after submitting territorial claims, Mizoram govt ‘waits’ for Assam to resume talks on border row

In Nov 2022 — a year after clashes between police forces of both states claimed 7 lives — it was agreed Mizoram should submit its territorial claims. But there’s been no word from Assam.

Clashes broke out at the Assam-Mizoram border on 26 July 2021 | ANI

New Delhi: The Mizoram government has sought resumption of secretary-level talks with Assam over a 150-year-old border dispute between the two states, Mizoram officials told ThePrint Friday. The development comes over two years after deadly clashes between police forces of the two states claimed seven lives, including that of a civilian.

An official from Mizoram’s home department told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity  that the state government had submitted a list of its territorial claims to Assam in February — three months after the two governments had agreed that it was the way forward to resolve the border dispute. It had received no response, the official said.

On 4 August, Mizoram Home Commissioner Pu H. Lalengmawia wrote to Assam’s Border Protection and Development Department to follow up on the issue. ThePrint has seen a copy of the letter. 

“I am to state that the reply from the government of Assam is still awaited,” Lalengmawia had written.

ThePrint reached Assam’s Border Protection and Development Department Minister Atul Bora over calls, text messages and email and the Assam Chief Minister’s Office via email for comment, but received no response till the time of publication of this report. The article will be updated if and when a response is received.

ThePrint also reached Mizoram Home Commissioner Lalengmawia over calls and text messages for his comment on the lack of progress in resolving the dispute. The report will be updated if and when he responds.

The development comes amid the ongoing ethnic violence in another northeastern state, Manipur, between its tribal Kuki and non-tribal Meitei communities, and is significant given that clashes have previously been reported over the unresolved border issue between Assam and Mizoram.

Clashes between police forces over the two states over alleged encroachments in July 2021 claimed reportedly seven lives, most of them policemen. Many were wounded in the incident. 

Likewise, two incidents of violence were reported between residents of the two states in October 2020 — one near Cachar in Assam and the other on the border of the Karimganj district in Assam and Mamit in Mizoram 

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power in Assam, Mizoram is ruled by its ally Mizo National Front (MNF).  The MNF has been critical of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s handling of the Manipur violence, even announcing its support for the Opposition’s ‘No-Confidence Motion’ against the Narendra Modi government. 

The issue

Assam and Mizoram share a 165-km-long border that runs between Cachar, Hailakandi, and Karimganj districts in Assam and Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts in Mizoram.

At the root of the dispute are two border demarcations — one drawn up in 1875 between Lushai Hills in southeastern Mizoram and Cachar plains in Assam, and the other in 1933 between Lushai Hills and the then princely state of Manipur. 

While Mizoram recognises the 1875 demarcation, which it claims was drawn up in consultation with Mizo chiefs, Assam accepts the latter.

In 2018, various political parties and civil society organisations in Mizoram submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that the borders drawn in 1933  were done “without the consent and approval of the competent authorities and the people of the Lushai Hills, now Mizoram, thereby unreasonably excluding some of the Lushai inhabited areas such as Cachar Zion, Tlangnuam, Lala Bazar and Banga Bazar”. 

Since the clashes in 2021, the two sides held several rounds of talks, with the last one taking place in November last year.

A joint statement issued after last year’s meeting between Assam Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora and Mizoram Home Minister Pu Lalchamliana said Mizoram will survey the disputed areas and submit its claims.  

“Government of Mizoram will furnish the list of villages, their area, geo-spatial extent, and ethnicity of the people and other relevant information within three months to support their claim, which can be examined by setting up regional committees from both sides to arrive at an amicable resolution of the vexed border issues. The government of Assam will extend full cooperation wherever sought,” the statement said. 

Soon after this, a panel headed by J. Doungel, a professor of political science at Mizoram University conducted the survey, the Mizoram home department official quoted earlier said. 

“This group listed around 66 villages falling within the inner line reserved forest along the border between the two states as that of Mizoram’s. The claims were submitted to Assam in February but there has been no response from their side,” the official said. 

Since then, several reminders had been sent to Assam — the last one on 4 August — the official said. In that letter, Lalengmawia proposes a secretary-level discussion “at a mutually agreed venue, date and time to move forward on the previous foundations already laid by the two ministers of Mizoram and Assam”. 

“I am to request you to intimate a suitable venue, data and come for the meeting,” the letter says. 

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)