Has Rahul Gandhi's padayatra in Mizoram generated any excitement?
Congress leader RaGa visited Mizoram in mid-October 2023 for election campaign. People in rest of India might have forgotten that in 1966, PM Indira Gandhi bombed Mizoram capital Aizawl with IAF fighter jets. This is first and last time India used its fighter jets to bomb its own people. But people of Mizoram should not have forgotten that.
Till the 1980s, the Indian military stoutly denied the use of air attacks in Mizoram in 1966. By 1967, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act was in force in the area that is now Mizoram.Equally disturbing part of anti-Mizo action by Indira Gandhi is creating of concentration camp (minus gas chambers) where suspected Mizo Liberation Front militants were camped. The military plan was to gather villagers from all over, and cluster them along the side of this road. These new, so-called Protected and Progressive Villages (PPVs), were nothing but concentration camps, minus gas chambers. This was called ‘regrouping of villages.’ Life here was tough: each resident was numbered and tagged, going and coming was strictly regulated and rations were meagre. In the PPVs’ confines, tribal conventions broke down. In the scramble for scarce resources, theft, murder and alcoholism became widespread. The regrouping destroyed the Mizos’ practice of jhum, or shifting cultivation. There was little land inside the PPVs and their original jhum areas had been left far behind in the interiors. Farm output fell off a cliff. Mizoram suffered from near-famine conditions, supplemented by what little the military could provide, for the next three years. Why were the villagers herded into the PPVs? The military reckoned that keeping villagers under their eyes would keep them from sheltering insurgents or joining the MNA (Mizo National Army). The original villages, crops and granaries were destroyed to deny wandering insurgents shelter and food. These ideas were picked up by our officers from the colonial British playbook. The British had regrouped villages during the Boer war in the early 20th century in Malaya (Malaysia).
Today MNA has become a political party MNF (Mizo National Front) and gave up militancy in mid 1980s and after two decades of militancy post bombing of Aizawl.
Rajiv Gandhi signed ‘Mizo Accord’ with MNF leader Laldenga in 1985. Laldenga of Mizoram wanted to break away from India and led Mizo militant group for decades. The logistics support came from east Pakistan Chittagong port and escape routes were neighbouring jungles of Burma (Myanmar). When Bangladesh became separate country after 1971 Indo-Pak war, Laldenga was in Pakistan capital Islamabad till 1973 as he was getting full support from them. He realised his dream for independent Mizoram is practically over because Pakistan is now weak and far away now from Mizoram and newly formed Bangladesh turned pro-India under Sheikh Mujib. He shifted to London and lived there for a decade (1975-1985). He subsequently dropped the idea of independent Mizoram realizing that he is getting old and time is running out for him. So, he signed Mizo peace accord with Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi and people there enjoying peace there since then.
Moral of the story is – Nehru and Indira Gandhi completely ignore entire north-east part of India. Only Rajiv Gandhi and subsequent national leaders had some focus on north-east part of India. Modi government, has spent 10X more than all previous governments and current government of MNF is part of BJP’s ally NDA group.
Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner
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