Mizoram CM Lalduhoma meets PM Modi; tells EAM Jaishankar ‘fencing Indo-Myanmar border will reinforce British division’

The Mizoram CM shared details of the ongoing border situation with Myanmar and said it is still unacceptable to people on both sides of the border.

He also said refugees seeking shelter in Mizoram aren’t treated unequally and expressed his wish for a Greater Mizoram as a part of the Akhand Bharat.

Lalduhoma has so far spoken in favour of the unification of the ‘Zo territory’, which refers to certain contiguous regions of northeast India, Myanmar, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh etc.

Lalduhoma’s party, the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), has broken the traditional power shift in Mizoram between the Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Congress.

The ZPM broke the cycle by positioning itself as a third power and formed the government this year by harnessing the anti-incumbency against the established parties.

While the ZPM doesn’t differ with the MNF on its issue of Mizo nationalism, the party has built its political base on the allegations of MNF purportedly losing its socio-political identity.

On Thursday, Lalduhoma expressed his stand that people on both sides of the India-Myanmar border wish to come under one administration. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister advised him to submit a proposal for a more structured Inner Line Permit (ILP) system.

Lalduhoma also met External Affairs minister S Jaishankar and said any move to set up barbed wire fencing along the India-Myanmar border would be “unacceptable”.

Terming that the British colonials had historically separated the Mizos by carving Burma out of the then India, the CM said Mizos would not be able to accept the border and said the Mizo people have always dreamt of “becoming one nation under one administration”.

He added that if any border fence is set up along the India-Myanmar border, it would effectively reinforce the “British division of the Mizo people”.

The Mizoram CM’s visit and his recent comments come days after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials told the media that it is contemplating to put up border fences on a stretch of 300 km of border between India and Myanmar.

India and Myanmar share a 1,643-km-long border, which is unfenced in many parts.