6 Jaunary 2024
MMizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on 4 January where the latter congratulated him over his victory and discussed different issues related to the international border with Myanmar.
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, and fencing Indo-Myanmar border will reinforce British division.
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 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 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”.
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.
