ASSAM-MIZORAM: BORDER CLASHES
The violent clash at the disputed Lailapur-Vairengte border between Assam and Mizoram on July 26, which resulted in the death of six Assam Police personnel, is a grim reminder of the simmering tensions among the seven Indian states collectively known as India’s Northeast. While inter-state border disputes are not new in the region, what makes this incident unique is the clash between the police forces of the two states and the alleged use of light machine guns by the Mizoram Police to open fire on Assam Police personnel.
As expected, a political slugfest began immediately, with the chief ministers of both states blaming the police forces of the other side for initiating the violence. While Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga to calm tensions, the social media spat between the heads of two state governments run by NDA members—the BJP in Assam and the MNF (Mizo National Front) in Mizoram—did not reflect well on the BJPled alliance. More so as Sarma is the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance, an umbrella organisation of all non-Congress parties in the region, which includes the MNF. Ironically, the clashes took place just two days after Shah’s visit to the Northeast, during which he had met the chief ministers of the region in Shillong and asked them to resolve all inter-state border disputes by 2022,
when India will celebrate its 75th year of Independence. That now seems an impossible goal—with Assam now set to deploy 4,000 commandos to guard the border with Mizoram, it’s unlikely that a political solution will be found in the next one year. The site of the July 26 clash is the border between Lailapur in Assam’s Cachar district and Vairengte in Mizoram’s Kolasib district. A similar clash took place here between civilians last October, with both sides claiming encroachment by the other. The same month, clashes also took place at the border of Assam’s Karimganj district and Mizoram’s Mamit district (see map at left). Assam shares a 164.6 km long border with Mizoram, formerly known as Lushai Hills, a district of Assam. In 1875, the British rulers of India had a boundary treaty with the Mizo chieftains demarcating the Lushai Hills— then an independent area—from the plains of Cachar. In 1890, the Lushai Hills region was annexed by British India. In 1933, a notification was issued demarcating the boundary between the Lushai Hills and Manipur. Mizoram was carved out of Assam as a Union Territory in 1972; in it became a fullfledged state in 1987. While Mizoram acknowledges the demarcation of 1875 as Mizo people were consulted in that decision, the Assam government insists on following the 1933 notification. However, the recent clashes have been triggered more by disagreements over land and forest rights than border claims and historical agreements. At the heart of the current dispute is the Inner Line Reserve Forest, covering 509 sq. km, the natural boundary between Assam and Mizoram. Composed of low hills that are the northern promontories of the Lushai Hills, it covers parts of Cachar and Hailakandi districts in Assam, bordering Mizoram and Manipur. Assam claims Mizoram is constructing a road that is destroying the reserve forest inside Assam. Similarly, in Karimganj, the clash in October 2020 took place around the Singla Forest Reserve, which on paper is under Assam’s jurisdiction. Historians in Mizoram claim that these forest areas were the hunting grounds of Mizo tribes and that people on both sides of the border had co-existed peacefully for ages. “These clashes are a recent phenomenon, perhaps indicating political motivations,” says Professor Orestes Rosanga of the Department of History and Ethnography at Mizoram University. People in Assam, however, blame civil society groups in Mizoram for instigating clashes to remain politically relevant. Many claim that such skirmishes have increased since Chief Minister Zoramthanga—whose political salience depends on the assertion of Mizo identity—came to power in 2018 as he is more sympathetic to student groups in Mizoram. Playing to the gallery, his MNF colleague and Rajya Sabha MP K. Vanlalvena thundered outside Parliament on July 28: “If they (Assam Police) come again, we will kill them all.” Senior Assam cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika says that “Several non-state actors, including student groups, influence political discourse in the state.” In the run-up to the 2018 Assembly polls in Mizoram, the Assam Police knocked down a hut built by members of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), the apex students’ body of Mizoram. The hut allegedly stood on Assamese soil, and became a poll issue.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that in Shillong, Chief Minister Zoramthanga asserted that “large tracts of areas claimed by Assam are within the constitutional boundary of Mizoram” and have been used by the people of Mizoram for more than 100 years. He even alleged that Assam had started claiming these areas because of
THE RECENT CLASHES HAVE BEEN TRIGGERED MORE BY DISAGREEMENTS OVER LAND AND FOREST RIGHTS THAN BORDER CLAIMS
population pressure apparently caused by the large-scale influx of migrants. Civil society groups in Mizoram have been more categorical. “The illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are trying to occupy our traditional land. I don’t understand why the Assam government is supporting them,” says B. Vanlaltana, president of the MZP. The Assam government has dismissed these claims. “Assam wants to protect the forest. It’s not allowing any settlement in the forest area and will never allow any settlement there,” says Chief Minister Sarma. Assam Police sources claim that Mizoram residents are trying to occupy these forest areas for cultivation. Chief Minister Sarma also sees this as a consequence of the state government’s recent anti-drug efforts. Large quantities of illegal drugs enter Assam and the rest of the country from Myanmar through Manipur and Mizoram. In the past two months, Assam Police have confiscated narcotics worth Rs 163 crore and arrested nearly 1,500 drug dealers. The state government has also tabled a bill in the Assembly seeking to ban the transport of cattle from the state. This had a significant impact on the thriving cattle smuggling business from Assam to Bangladesh and other north-eastern states. According to the Union government, the Border Security Force seized 476,035 head of cattle between 2016 and 2020 along the Indo-Bangla border. “Anti-social elements are rattled by these steps. Certainly, there will be such attempts. That’s why I have ordered a probe to find out how civilians could confront Assam Police with weapons. It is important to find out who provided them with arms,” says CM Sarma. When it comes to the July 26 clash, while the probe may identify who fired first, only dialogue involving the residents of the areas can lead to a permanent solution. The Centre has shown its intent to resolve disputes by forming a committee in June for documentation of all border disputes in the region. Fasttracking the process could help, though contesting claims on property and the tangled question of livelihoods makes these disputes quite intractable.