Tag: MNF

  • Expecting that President’s Rule be imposed in Manipur- Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma

    With the situation in Manipur not improving, Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma said that he has been expecting that President’s Rule be imposed in Manipur.

    Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 71st Plenary Session of the North East Council in Shillong, he said, “There has to be a solution between the government of India, government of India and tribal leaders.”

    When asked if the situation warrants imposition in Manipur, he said, “That is what we are expecting as it has been very long. The situation does not change and sometimes it becomes worse”. He said those people from Manipur who have taken refuge in Mizoram are Indians. “Indian constitution provides that they can settle anywhere in the country. Unless normalcy returns to the state of Manipur, we will look after them.”

    When asked if there is the need for the Centre to intervene, the chief minister said, “Yes it is the responsibility of the Home ministry to intervene if there is trouble anywhere in the country. There has to be a solution between the tribal leaders and the state government; it must be liaised by the home ministry. We have nothing to do and we need to look after the people who are staying there.”

    He added, “People are fleeing from Myanmar to our for shelter and we are providing the same. The population, today is more tomorrow less. Soldiers of Myanmar keep on coming seeking shelter, we send them by air. Around 450 army personnel were sent back. “Around 276 Myanmar Army personnel, who took refuge in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai District after their camps were captured by the Arakan Army (AA) militants, would be repatriated soon.An official in Mizoram said 276 Myanmar soldiers with their arms and ammunition reached Bandukbanga Village situated on the Mizoram-Myanmar-Bangladesh border trijunction, in southernmost Lawngtlai district on Wednesday afternoon. They are now being taken care of by the Assam Rifles at their Parva camp in Lawngtlai district.

    Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to apprise them of the concerns of the Mizos and the issue of Myanmarese refugees, especially with the present proposal by India to fence the border with Myanmar. He also pushed for a Greater Mizoram as part of Akhand Bharat.

    During his first official visit after taking over as chief minister after winning the assembly polls in December last year, the Mizoram CM apprised the PM that the current border with Myanmar was forced upon the two ethnic groups without their prior consent. Infact, he later said, during his meeting with the external affairs minister, that the demarcation of the two countries was forced upon by the British and that Mizos find it is impossible to accept the border. He said that if border fencing with Myanmar is done, it would be considered as a sign of separation “from our ethnic brethren”.

    Lalduhoma stated that the wish of people on both sides of the border is to come under one administration, and that the refugees seeking shelter inside Mizoram are not treated differently but as their brethren.

    Lalduhoma stated in his Instagram page that the PM had advised him to submit a proposal for a more uniformed system of Inner Line Permit (ILP).

    Over 38,000 people from Myanmar have taken refuge in Mizoram since the military coup in February 2021. Another 1,000 people from the Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh had also come to Mizoram.

    The former Mizoram government, led by the Mizo National Front (MNF), had opposed the Centre’s order to deport Myanmarese refugees while allowing them to take shelter in the state.

    Following the ethnic clashes in Manipur and ahead of the assembly polls in Mizoram, Zo unification had become an electoral issue with the MNF raking up the demand for a Greater Mizoram. Zo unification means bringing all ethnic communities — Mizos of Mizoram, Kuki-Zomis of Manipur, Chins of Myanmar and Bangladesh — under one administrative umbrella.

    The hilly area of Manipur, adjoining Mizoram, is inhabited by the Zo community which share the same culture, religion, tradition and ancestry.

    Around 13,000 people from Kuki-Zo community have taken shelter in Mizoram following ethnic violence in Manipur. The majority of those who have reached Mizoram belong to the Chin community (or Zos) who share their ancestry, ethnicity, and culture with the Mizos of Mizoram.

    Manipur witnessed unprecedented violent clashes, attacks, counter attacks and arsoning of houses, vehicles and government and private properties in more than 10 districts during and after May 3 ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ called by the All-Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur (ATSUM) to oppose the demand for inclusion of the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe category.

    Manipur is devastated by nine month long ethnic violence between the non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki-Zo community and over 185 people have been killed and over 1,500 people injured and displaced over 70,000 people of both communities so far.

  • Mizo National Front to field ex-PSU chief for by-polls

    By PTI

    AIZAWL: The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) will field K.Laldawngliana, head of a state-run public sector undertaking, for the upcoming by-poll to Tuirial assembly seat, a party leader said.

    MNF adviser and rural development minister Lalruatkima said a meeting of MNF nomination committee chaired by chief minister and MNF president Zoramthanga on Tuesday unanimously approved Laldawngliana, chairman of Mizoram State Cooperative Marketing & Consumers Federation (MIZOFED) Ltd as the party nominee for the by-election, whose date is yet to be announced.

    Meanwhile, highly placed sources in Congress told PTI that the party will field former legislator and party leader C.Chalrosanga for the upcoming election.

    Name of the party candidate will be officially announced soon, the sources said.

    Main opposition Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) is however yet to name its candidate.

    Party sources said that the ZPM nomination committee will meet on Friday to decide its candidate.

    By-election is due in Tuirial constituency asthe incumbent MLA Andrew H.Thangliana passed away on August 17.

    In the present 40-member assembly, the ruling MNF has 27 members, ZPM (6), Congress (5) and the BJP has 1 MLA.

  • BJP snubs Northeast allies in Modi cabinet rejig

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: The BJP ignored its allies in the Northeast as Prime Minister Narendra Modi reshuffled his ministry on Wednesday.

    Five from the Northeast – Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal), Sarbananda Sonowal, Rameswar Teli (both from Assam), Pratima Bhowmick (Tripura), and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh (Manipur) made the cut. The four states are ruled by the BJP.

    The BJP is a constituent of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)-headed ruling coalition in Nagaland and National People’s Party (NPP)-led government in Meghalaya. It is also an ally of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram.

    MNF has two MPs – C Lalrosanga and K Vanlalvena – while NDPP and NPP have one each – Tokheho Yepthomi and Agatha Sangma respectively. Despite being BJP allies, these regional parties were not considered for representation in the Modi government.

    WR Kharlukhi, who is NPP’s Meghalaya unit chief, said the selection of candidates for ministerial berths was Modi’s prerogative.

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    “It is the prerogative of the PM. The PM will pick up his men who are good for the administration and I think he has done well. We have no grievances,” Kharlukhi said.

    NDPP president Chingwang Konyak refused to make any comment while MNF leaders were not available on the phone.

    This is for the first time that five from the Northeast were inducted into the central ministry. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh and Pratima Bhowmick are first-timers in the Parliament as well as the ministry.

    Singh, popularly known as RK Ranjan who belongs to an erstwhile royal clan of Manipur, is an academic-turned-politician. He had joined the BJP in 2013 and contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but lost.

    Pratima, Tripura’s “didi”, is a science graduate who had served BJP’s state unit as the general secretary prior to her election to the Parliament in 2019.

    Earlier, Santosh Mohan Deb and Triguna Sen were inducted into the Union cabinet from Tripura but they were not from the state. Deb hailed from Assam and Sen from West Bengal.

  • Amit Shah isn’t God, his prediction of BJP ruling for 50 years an exaggeration: MNF

    Mizo National Front, a constituent of the BJP-led NEDA, dismissed saffron party chief Amit Shah’s remarks that the party will rule India for the next 50 years if it wins the 2019 general elections, saying he is not a God and the prediction is an exaggeration.

    The principal opposition party in Mizoram is, however, confident that the Congress or the UPA will not come to power at the Centre in the next year’s general elections.

    Former chief minister and MNF chief Zoramthanga told PTI in an interview that his party and the BJP can never be allies in the hill state because of the saffron party’s Hindutva politics.

    “I doubt. He (Shah) is not a God. He cannot predict that in politics. Even Modi cannot predict that. That is his wishful thinking. Nobody can predict that,” he said, when asked about Shah’s claim of BJP ruling for the next 50 years.

    The Congress is not coming to power again in 2019 at the Centre and nobody can predict how many decades it will take to form the next government, the veteran politician from the north-east said.

    “For decades, he (Shah) may predict that Congress will not come to power. But to predict for 50 years or 100 years, it is rather an exaggeration,” Zoramthanga said.

    In September, Shah had said at the BJP’s National Executive meet that the party will win the 2019 elections because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hard work and then no one can dethrone it for the next 50 years.

    Talking about the relations between the MNF and the BJP, the two-time chief minister said he was completely against the BJP as far as the ideology and other things are concerned.

    “Because we are Christians. They want to promote the Hindutva. We cannot be together as far as these things are concerned. We have a different ideology.

    “But as far as the country is concerned, the NDA is better than the UPA and that is why we joined them at the Centre. But ideologically, the MNF and the BJP are poles apart. The BJP knows it very well,” he said.

    In the recently held Assembly elections in Mizoram, the MNF contested alone against the ruling Congress and the BJP. Both the Congress and the MNF contested in all the 40 constituencies, while the BJP fought in 39 seats.

    The Congress has been in power in Mizoram since 2008 and is eyeing a third consecutive term. In the 2013 elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while the MNF got five and Mizoram People’s Conference one.

    Mizoram went to polls on November 28 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 11.