Mizoram Chief Minister and chief of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) Zoramthanga on Monday said that the state government and the MNF party are not afraid of the NDA government at the Centre.
“Though we are with the NDA we do not subscribe to the policies and objects of the NDA. Political parties in India are forming alliances in the name of BJP-led NDA or recently Congress-led INDIA, and MNF is an alliance partner of the NDA.,” CM Zoramthanga said while addressing party workers at Hnam Run (MNF party office) in Aizawl.
On some people’s allegations that the MNF party is afraid of the BJP, the Chief Minister said that the BJP-led central government instructed the Mizoram government to push back all the refugees from Myanmar, but the state government flatly refused.
“I announced in the assembly house that we will not deport them (Myanmar refugees), but will rather give them shelter and food. The MNF and the BJP work together for development, but not on the Mizo and religious issues and we do not say ‘ji saheb’ (yes, sir) to whatever they say” he said.
No other parties courageously objected to the proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the NDA meetings than the MNF as most of them were only to get in good terms with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said.
“The MNF never changes its stance when the government changes at the centre,” he said, adding that the party strongly opposed the proposed UCC because the MNF opposed anything that is detrimental to its motto – “For God and the country”.
While expressing his support for ‘Greater Mizoram’ by inclusion of ethnic Mizo inhabited areas in Manipur, Zoramthanga said that the Mizo kindred brothers and sisters in Manipur should make a move in accordance with the Article 3 of the Constitution rather than imposing on them. “The ethnic Mizo brothers in Manipur are now demanding a separate administration which is paving the way for achieving the re-unification,” he said.
Mizoram government and the people received the internally displaced people of Manipur with open arms and will eat and drink whatever the people of the state eat and drink, he said.
He said that he has reminded the Union Home Secretary that the fund sought for providing assistance to the Manipur IDPs taking shelter in the state is yet to be released.
“I told the centre that millions of refugees from East Pakistan taking shelter in West Bengal in 1971 were taken care of by the Indian government and I put strong pressure to the central government,” he added.
The review meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.
In total, around 1,200-1,400 houses primarily belonging to Bengali-speaking Muslims, were demolished during the eviction…