The Congress needs to reorganise itself at the grassroots, infuse younger blood, and have more boots on the ground. Just offering freebies is not the answer anymore. Leadership matters, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Hours before a planned mass burial of Kuki-Zomi people killed in Manipur's ethnic violence, the state's high court on Thursday ordered that status quo be maintained at the proposed burial site in Churachandpur district, while ITLF, an apex tribal body also said it was postponing burial service plans following requests from the Union home minister.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the chief ministers of Assam and Mizoram, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Zoramthanga respectively, and urged them to ensure peace along the disputed border and find an amicable settlement.
His appeal came when certain organisations of the neighbouring Barak Valley region of Assam observed a 12-hour bandh on Wednesday and have been staging an economic blockade on the National Highway-306 that connects Mizoram with the rest of the country since July 26, disrupting transportation of goods to the state.
The Imphal Valley in Manipur remained peaceful but tense on Friday, however intermittent gunfights between militant groups and security forces were reported from the hill districts surrounding the valley.
The officer issued an advisory, saying the contents of the previous letter had been "misconstrued".
Police sources said the state forces exchanged fire for about 40 minutes.
Two senior government functionaries said the central government does not want to take any decision that may further escalate the ground situation.
The deal was signed by representatives of Bru, the central, Tripura and Mizoram governments in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Under the agreement, over 30,000 Bru tribals will live in Tripura permanently, Shah said.
With this, the Congress has lost its last foothold in the north-east.
There are three things you never do in a small North East state: Undermine local leaders, divide and rule, push homogenisation, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Six days after a violent clash between police forces of Assam and Mizoram claimed seven lives and injured over 50 people, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said such incidents along the inter-state border are 'unacceptable' to people of both the states and advocated a resolution through talks.
The Mizoram government is ready to withdraw the first information report (FIR) filed against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuango said on Sunday.
At least five Assam Police personnel were killed while defending the "constitutional boundary" of the state with Mizoram and more than 60 people injured, including an SP, as the festering border dispute between the two northeastern states erupted into a bloody conflict on Monday.
Raphael AVL Malchhanhima said, "The thought of my friend being buried far away from his home troubled me. My father, a preacher, also encouraged me to accompany the mortal remains of my friend withstanding the difficulties of the journey."
The Assam government also decided to revoke an advisory issued earlier against travel to Mizoram, they said.
The Mizoram police had lodged an FIR against Sarma and six officials under various charges including those related to attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy at Vairengte police station late on Monday after a gun fight between Mizoram and the Assam police. The FIR, however, became public on Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the challenge of the Covid pandemic is not fully over yet, with the increase in coronavirus cases in the last two weeks manifesting the need to stay alert, and underlined that vaccination remains the biggest protective shield against the virus.
In a fresh influx from trouble-torn Myanmar, more than 1,800 people have reportedly crossed over to Mizoram in the past few days, state Home Minister Lalchamliana said.
Mizoram shares a 510 km long porous border with Myanmar's Chin state and most of the Myanmarese nationals who have taken refuge in the state belong to the Chin, also known as the Zo, community. They share the same ancestry and culture as the Mizos of Mizoram.
Assam CM said the police case filed against two senior Mizoram government officials - Deputy Commissioner of Kolasib district and Sub-divisional Police Officer of Vairengte - will be withdrawn.
Mizo National Front, a constituent of the BJP-led NEDA said he was completely against the BJP as far as the ideology and other things are concerned.
'Increased help from China to North East insurgents will create more trouble for us.'
He travelled over 3,000 km to take his friend's body from Chennai to Mizoram, and now he has donated the money he received as reward to the Chief Ministers Relief Fund to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Twenty-three-year-old Raphael AVL Malchhanhima, a native of Hmawngbu village in Mizoram's southernmost Lawngtlai district, on Thursday donated Rs 5,000 to the CMRF.
Each of Assam's border disputes has its own legacy of claims and counter-claims:
The situation is now under control in the area, which is on the border between the Kolasib district of Mizoram and Cachar district of Assam.
During the three-day mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast and there will be no public entertainment, a notification issued by the Assam government said.
The eight states of the north-east account for 25 Lok Sabha seats and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is eying to bag those in the Parliamentary election.
The Congress has already secured the required 21 seats to form the government in the 40-member House. The chief minister was defeated in his Champhai North seat and the MNF has so far manage to win only one seat.
The lone Lok Sabha member from Mizoram, Vanlalzawma of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), is likely to abstain from voting on the confidence motion in the Parliament, highly-placed sources in the MNF said today. Sources said that if Vanlalzawma's vote is to result in the ouster of the Congress-led UPA government, he would vote against the government, but if the UPA government is going to survive he would abstain.
The return of the Congress to power is the change that has been long awaited. The anti-incumbency factor had stacked up against the MNF. For Pu Zoramthanga, who lost in his home constituency Champhai North and his party, the decade of smooth tongue wagging to save the party failed after they repeatedly did not deliver their promises.
As neighbouring states of Nagaland await clarity on the Naga peace accord, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said any move that affects the interests of his state will be opposed "tooth and nail".
Lalhmingliana, the lone Rajya Sabha member from the state, told PTI that MNF legislature party would arrange separate seats in both the houses of the parliament after the party informed its decision to the parliament.
Three armed policemen were killed and five others injured when suspected militants belonging to Hmar People's Convention-Democracy attacked members of an assembly panel in Zokhawthiang in Aizawl district bordering Manipur, police said.
Former Speaker of state Assembly R Lalawia of Zoram Nationalist Party is the richest among the the 141 candidates who have filed nomination for the Mizoram polls on November 25.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is likely to contest the November 25 Assembly polls from Serchhip constituency from where he has won five times and also from Hrangturzo, Congress sources have said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party president also accused successive Congress government's of having alienated the region from the rest of the country.
Labelled as the semi-final before the big Lok Sabha poll, assembly elections in five states will set the tone for summer of 2019.
Gandhi, on the other hand, has also reached out directly to the party workers in the three states to know their top choice for the chief minister post through an internal mobile messaging app, party leaders said.
A poster boy of Congress in Mizoram, four-time Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is a stalwart in the state politics and has been in and out of power for the past three decades.
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