- Fifties famine comes back to haunt people of Mizoram in election year
SANTANU GHOSH AND SAMIR K. PURKAYASTHA
Aizawl, Dec. 1: Mizoram is at the crossroads. When the 23rd state of the Indian Union goes to the polls tomorrow, Mizoram will have come full circle. In the late 1950s, the state was pushed into a dark period of insurgency when bamboo flowering brought in its wake a devastating mautam (famine) to an ill-prepared state.
After over 50 years, the natural phenomenon has returned as an election issue to haunt the very people who had picked up guns under the banner of the militant Mizo National Front, led by Laldenga to liberate the erstwhile Lushai Hills from an “indifferent” Indian government.
Two decades later, the MNF evolved again into a political party after the 1986 peace accord. The party of ex-rebels has since ruled Mizoram for 12 years, consecutively for the last two terms in the 40-member House. Today, catering partly to first-time voters without any sentimental attachment to their “past sacrifices”, the party has been fending off charges of letting the people down on the very issue it owes its existence to.
Misuse of funds meant to tackle the famine which struck the state last year has been the main poll plank of the Congress against the MNF led by Zoramthanga, once the right hand man of Laldenga.
Polling in this economically backward, but highly literate state (literacy rate is about 89 per cent) is being held amid buzzing speculation that Mizoram could, for the first time, head towards a hung Assembly. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in their respective election rallies in the state, were uncharacteristically aggressive while levelling charges of misuse of mautam funds by the ruling party.
But in the absence of any starvation deaths or devastation that could sweep the sentiments of the state’s 611,124 — 299,683 male and 308,443 female — electorate against the MNF, the Congress’s main weapon against the ruling party apparently has not proved to be as lethal as expected.
The MNF has also played a “women’s card” by bringing an ordinance for a Mizo Divorce Law to counter the customary law which prevents a Mizo woman from having any right over family property and over her offspring after separation from her husband .
And here lies the importance of the third major front in the fray: the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). It is an unusual alliance of a retired brigadier, Thenphunga Sailo, and an ex-IPS officer, Lalduhawma, with an agrarian group called Zoram Kuthnathawktu Pawl or Farmers’ Union.
For many in Mizoram, 86-year-old Sailo is still the last action hero, having fought the Japanese during World War II and retiring as a brigadier post-Bangladesh War in 1971 to become the state’s second chief minister. His maverick ally, though, has a dubious first to his credit.
Lalduhawma was the first MP to be disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law a couple of years after being elected uncontested from the state’s lone Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket in 1984. Sailo’s Mizoram People’s Conference and Lalduhawma’s Zoram Nationalist Party fell short of expectations in the 2003 Assembly elections, managing three and two seats respectively in the 40-member House.
While the Congress has put up 40 candidates, the MNF and UDA have nominated respectively 39 and 33 of their aspirants. There are only nine women candidates drawn from different parties.
The people of Mizoram have already brought about change. Apart from a few allegations and counter-allegations, there has been no visible case of excessive use of money or muscle power in the electioneering, thanks to the “commandments” of the Church-led Mizo People’s Forum.
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081202/jsp/northeast/story_10194403.jsp
SANTANU GHOSH AND SAMIR K. PURKAYASTHA
Aizawl, Dec. 1: Mizoram is at the crossroads. When the 23rd state of the Indian Union goes to the polls tomorrow, Mizoram will have come full circle. In the late 1950s, the state was pushed into a dark period of insurgency when bamboo flowering brought in its wake a devastating mautam (famine) to an ill-prepared state.
After over 50 years, the natural phenomenon has returned as an election issue to haunt the very people who had picked up guns under the banner of the militant Mizo National Front, led by Laldenga to liberate the erstwhile Lushai Hills from an “indifferent” Indian government.
Two decades later, the MNF evolved again into a political party after the 1986 peace accord. The party of ex-rebels has since ruled Mizoram for 12 years, consecutively for the last two terms in the 40-member House. Today, catering partly to first-time voters without any sentimental attachment to their “past sacrifices”, the party has been fending off charges of letting the people down on the very issue it owes its existence to.
Misuse of funds meant to tackle the famine which struck the state last year has been the main poll plank of the Congress against the MNF led by Zoramthanga, once the right hand man of Laldenga.
Polling in this economically backward, but highly literate state (literacy rate is about 89 per cent) is being held amid buzzing speculation that Mizoram could, for the first time, head towards a hung Assembly. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in their respective election rallies in the state, were uncharacteristically aggressive while levelling charges of misuse of mautam funds by the ruling party.
But in the absence of any starvation deaths or devastation that could sweep the sentiments of the state’s 611,124 — 299,683 male and 308,443 female — electorate against the MNF, the Congress’s main weapon against the ruling party apparently has not proved to be as lethal as expected.
The MNF has also played a “women’s card” by bringing an ordinance for a Mizo Divorce Law to counter the customary law which prevents a Mizo woman from having any right over family property and over her offspring after separation from her husband .
And here lies the importance of the third major front in the fray: the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). It is an unusual alliance of a retired brigadier, Thenphunga Sailo, and an ex-IPS officer, Lalduhawma, with an agrarian group called Zoram Kuthnathawktu Pawl or Farmers’ Union.
For many in Mizoram, 86-year-old Sailo is still the last action hero, having fought the Japanese during World War II and retiring as a brigadier post-Bangladesh War in 1971 to become the state’s second chief minister. His maverick ally, though, has a dubious first to his credit.
Lalduhawma was the first MP to be disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law a couple of years after being elected uncontested from the state’s lone Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket in 1984. Sailo’s Mizoram People’s Conference and Lalduhawma’s Zoram Nationalist Party fell short of expectations in the 2003 Assembly elections, managing three and two seats respectively in the 40-member House.
While the Congress has put up 40 candidates, the MNF and UDA have nominated respectively 39 and 33 of their aspirants. There are only nine women candidates drawn from different parties.
The people of Mizoram have already brought about change. Apart from a few allegations and counter-allegations, there has been no visible case of excessive use of money or muscle power in the electioneering, thanks to the “commandments” of the Church-led Mizo People’s Forum.
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081202/jsp/northeast/story_10194403.jsp
No comments:
Post a Comment