Mizoram minister quits to protest denial of medical seats to Chukmas

A minister in Lal Thanhawla’s Congress government in Mizoram resigned on Monday to protest the denial of medical seats to four qualified Chakma students in a case of alleged racial discrimination.

The resignation was also to save Thanhawla the “uneasiness in maintaining the glory of democracy of our state where all of us should feel at home”, Buddha Dhan Chakma, who resigned as minister of state for fisheries and sericulture, said.

The four Chakma students were among 38 selected to study MBBS and bachelor of dental surgery under Mizoram quota through National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017.

Two of them, ranked 9 and 23, are from Tuichawng, the assembly constituency that Chakma represents.

In his letter, the minister pointed out that the state’s higher and technical education department had on July 20 called the four NEET-qualified Chakma students for counselling. But the department’s commissioner cancelled it and called for re-counselling, the date for which has not yet been fixed.

On July 26, higher and technical education minister R Romawia said the state’s MBBS quota would be reserved exclusively for the Zo-ethnic people of Mizoram, Chakma said. The Zo-ethnic group, collectively called Mizos, form more than 85% of the Mizoram’s population. “From his press statement, it is clear that he is not going to give any MBBS seat to non-Zo ethnic students and it indicates a clear denial of MBBS seats to those four meritorious students and this is not acceptable by me,” Chakma wrote.

BUDDHA DHAN CHAKMA QUIT TO PROTEST THE DENIAL OF MEDICAL SEATS TO FOUR QUALIFIED CHAKMA STUDENTS