PM Modi meets Assam BJP MPs amid border tensions with Mizoram
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs from the Northeastern states have blamed Congress for doing politics over the ongoing border dispute between Assam and Mizoram. The MPs met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi to discuss issues concerning their states and the ongoing border dispute between Assam with other neighbouring states.
The MPs submitted a memorandum on various issues pertaining to the development of the region along with border disputes between Assam and Mizoram.
"Like our fellow Indians, we are extremely pained by the violence that took place on the Assam-Mizoram border. At the same time, we would like to express our clear disapproval of the attempt by sections of our polity led by the Congress Party to indulge in politics over these happenings and use this as a means to indulge in one-upmanship," the memorandum said.
The MPs pointed out that a series of confidence building measures have also taken place over the last few days.
"Yet, the actions of the Congress Party remain devious and mischievous. We would like to strongly convey to all those elements who view the Assam-Mizoram issue as a means of spreading chaos in India that their shenanigans will not work. India is united and will continue to move ahead on the path of progress," the memorandum said.
The BJP MPs mentioned that under the NDA government led by Prime Minister Modi development work in the Northeast has been historic and unparalleled.
"No Prime Minister has been as sensitive to the aspirations of the Northeast as Prime Minister Modi. The people of our region are deeply touched by his description of the Northeast as the 'Ashtalakshmi' of India's progress and the rapid development in the region as a part of the 'Act East Policy'," they said.
The MPs in the memorandum pointed out that former Prime Ministers Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi were not sensitive to the aspirations of the Naga and Mizo communities.
"The Congress party keeps taking credit for the Mizo accord but in less than two years of the accord, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi dismissed and humiliated Laldenga so that the state could have a Congress Government," the memorandum stated.
It further said that had Congress taken a harder stand on China, the people of Arunachal Pradesh would sleep even more peacefully than they did for many years. In Assam, it is an open secret how the top echelons of Congress encouraged instability in the state through the 1970s and 1980s.
A BJP MP from Assam, Dilip Saikia said, "All the BJP MPs from the Northeast attended the meeting and discussed the issues concerning the region and also the ongoing border dispute of Assam with Mizoram. We requested the Prime Minister to intervene and find an amicable solution to the border dispute among the Northeast states."
On July 26, in a violent clash between the police of both states, six Assam Police personnel were killed and more than 50 people injured over a disputed stretch of their boundary, near Dholai in Cachar district.
Following the clash, Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the Chief Ministers of both states and asked them to maintain peace along the border and find an amicable solution to the dispute.
Meanwhile, Mizoram Governor K Hari Babu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament and said the Centre is trying to find a solution to the issue. He will also meet Home Minister Amit Shah later in the afternoon. "The Home Minister is trying to defuse the tension and he is trying to find the solution. Both Chief Ministers (of Assam and Mizoram) have committed that peace will be restored," he said.
At least six Assam Police personnel and one civilian were killed and more than 50 people injured, including the police chief of the district of Cachar, in a fire-fight between the police of the two states on a disputed stretch of their boundary, near Dholai in Cachar district on July 25. Tension along the border with Mizoram in Cachar and Hailakandi districts of Assam have been escalating since October 2020 with frequent incidents of burning of houses and encroachment of land.
The two states share a 164.6-km border between Assam's Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts, and Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts. Both states have differing interpretations of their territorial border. While Mizoram believes that its border lies along an ‘inner line’ drawn up in 1875 to protect tribals from outside influence, Assam goes by a district demarcation done in the 1930s.
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