Mizo National Front Completes 60 Years, Observes Diamond Jubilee

Northeast Live Digital Desk

The Mizo National Front (MNF) centrally observed the diamond jubilee of its formation at Aizawl today.

At the main function held at Vanapa Hall here in Aizawl, Mizoram Chief Minister and MNF’s President Zoramthanga said that the MNF was formed on October 22, 1961, by a few Mizo leaders at the house of the late founder-president Laldenga. “The MNF came into existence with the objective of the survival of Mizoram and the Mizo people,” Zoramthanga said, adding that the peace accord was signed in 1986 with the Indian government with the same objective.

The Mizoram Chief Minister also paid tributes to the martyrs who lost their lives during the insurgency.

Speaking on the occasion Zoramthanga recounted that the Indian government had sent its security forces to the Mizo hills district (now Mizoram) to suppress the growing Mizo nationalism and to impede the MNF from expanding its influence in the Mizo dominated areas. He added that the party had no other option but to take up arms to achieve its aim of self-determination and sovereignty for the Mizos.

On June 30, 1986, the Indian government signed the historic Mizo peace accord with the MNF, ending the 20-year long insurgency.

The MNF, formed in 1961 during the devastating Mautam famine after rechristening the Mizo National Famine Front (MNFF), declared independence from the Indian Union on March 1, 1966 throwing Mizoram into the grips of insurgency for the next 20 years. After the Mizo Accord was signed on June 30, 1986 with the Centre, the erstwhile underground MNF became a regional party again and won the first election to the 40-member state assembly (after Mizoram attained statehood on February 20, 1987).

The MNF government led by Laldenga was toppled in August 1988 and the party lost two consecutive state assembly polls in 1989 and 1993 before returning to power in 1998 and 2003. However, the MNF government was voted out of power in 2008 with the Congress storming back to power with a thumping majority in the December 2, 2008 assembly polls. The MNF then came back to power in 2018 general elections and is currently the ruling party here in the state.

In an exclusive interview with the Editor-In-Chief of the Northeast Live on the eve of foundation day, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthaga exhaustively detailed how the MNF was formed from Mizo National Famine Front, its going underground, the MNFs struggle, his relationship with Laldenga, its eventual signing of the peace accord to ruling the state. He also revealed MNF’s efforts to internationalise the Mizo Movement by meeting then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai (Chou En-Lai), Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

[Click to watch the full interview]