‘My priorities are to impose total prohibition, rehabilitate families’
The Mizo National Front’s (MNF’S) Zoramthanga appears set to be the new Mizoram chief minister, a post he held for two terms between 1998 and 2008 before his party was toppled by the Congress. The 84-year-old politician spoke to
Edited excerpts:
shar. Utpal Para-
The MNF looks set to return to power in the state for the first time in 10 years. What are your priorities?
My first priority is to impose total prohibition (of alcohol) again. Our government will also rehabilitate families who were devastated by alcoholism and suffered the consequences of the open sale of liquor. We will also treat alcoholics.
The second is the improvement of our roads. Our roads are literally in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and need urgent attention.
And the third is to focus on the social and economic development of the state. The outgoing Congress, too, had various social development programmes. Will those continue?
The Congress’s two programmes called the New Land Use Policy (NLUP) and New Economic Development Policy (NEDP) will be scrapped. I will introduce a new Social Economic Development Programme (SEDP) to replace both of them. The Congress failed because there was total financial mismanagement during their rule and development had come to a standstill. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who voted for the MNF and for giving me a chance to change that.
You support the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the national level and were part of the Bjp-led Northeast alliance NEDA to drive the Congress out of Mizoram. But you fought against the BJP in the assembly polls. Will this victory change your relationship with the BJP?
We don’t need the BJP in this state. I have always maintained that the BJP has no place in Mizoram because we are a Christian state and a complex society. The BJP was very lucky to get even one assembly seat this time. We can form a government on our own, of course, so we don’t need their support. As far as any decision on whether to continue with the NDA/NEDA or not is concerned, that decision will be taken by the MNF head office.