Bamboo revolution

Every 50 years, a strange thing happens in Mizoram: the ubiquitous bamboo sprouts huge, dangling flowers. Rats, which feed on the flowers, increase in number; when they turn to grain, having exhausted the flowers, famine inevitably follows. The difference between how it was handled in the 8217;50s and how Mizoram handled it this year is a pointer to how and why that state is such a conspicuous Indian success story, something the 70 per cent-plus turnout at assembly elections re-emphasised recently. In the 8217;50s, the Guwahati-based administration had no access to folk tradition about inevitable famine; problems surrounding the distribution of famine relief sparked the beginning of a 30-year separatist insurgency.

What was formed to agitate for relief as the Mizo National Famine Front and then fought the Indian Army as the Mizo National Front is now, following the Mizoram Accord signed by Rajiv Gandhi and Pu Laldenga, the governing political party in a state ruled from Aizawl and not Guwahati. In 2006-078217;s mautam, as the flower-famine season is called, the state government called in the army it once fought to help keep the rats under control.

Today it fights for political survival 8212; in an election where questions of irregularity about famine relief are being decided through healthy political participation. Congress chief Lalthanhawla, who stepped down as chief minister when the Mizoram Accord was signed, faces off against Chief Minister Zoramthanga, Laldenga8217;s trusted aide; the 86-year-old former chief minister, army veteran and human rights activist, T. Sailo, is also in the race.

When voters are empowered, insurgencies die. But true voter empowerment needs healthy, supportive civil society and access to information. Mizoram has both. In 1999, it became India8217;s most literate state; effectively its entire electorate is literate. Civil society encourages vigorous political debate; many retired government officers are participating as candidates, as are a record number of women. At a time when some who speak for civil society are articulating a loss of faith in politics, when others believe that long-simmering separatist anxieties will be with us for ever, there are salutary lessons to be learnt from Mizoram, its elections, and its flowering bamboo.