 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. I am Paranjoy Gohar Thakurtha joining me from Aizol in Mizoram. I'm very happy to have Kimmy Kolny. She's a journalist and currently she's reporting for the East Mojo website. Earlier she had reported for the Caravan magazine. Thank you Kimmy for giving us your time. The first question I would like to ask you and this is for the benefit of our viewers. There seem to be several political parties and groups in the election frame. Now elections were already held on the 7th of November. We have to wait for the 3rd of December for the results. The main political party that seems to be the leader of the race is the Mizo National Front led by Chief Minister Zoram Thanga and he's been the Chief Minister of Mizo Ram now for about 22 years. There's only one other person who's been the Chief Minister of Mizo Ram for a similar period and there's Lal Tharnola. At some point of time I'm going to ask you to compare the two. But the MNF are contesting in all the 40 assembly seats. So is the Indian National Congress. They are led by Lal Sola. The Zoram People's Movement is also contesting all the 40 seats. It's led by Lal Duhonma. The Bharti Janta Party led by Vanila Moakha is contesting 23 seats and there's the Aam Admi Party led by Anru Lal Remkeena who is contesting just one seat. So Kimmy, please tell us who are the major contenders, who were the major contenders in the electoral battle. The major contenders were MNF and ZPM. Congress also still has some say but the impact of Congress is not as big as it was before and see what we have to understand is for 30 years the people have only seen the leadership of two Chief Ministers Zoram Thangha and Lal Tharnola. And the mood of the people is that they want to see something different. They want to see a new leadership especially the youth who are becoming more interested in politics, politics for change. They want to see a new leadership, a new party come into force. And so I think now the main battle is between MNF and ZPM. MNF still has strong supporters from its party, the people who have been faithful to the party for all these years. But ZPM has come in really strong so once the results are out we will see who gets the majority. Okay, now you believe that the main contest is really if you look at personalities is by Lal Duhanma for the post of the Chief Minister and Zoram Thangha. Am I correct? Yes. Can we talk a little bit about the issues that are likely or were likely to have influenced the choices of the voters of Mizoram? You already said people want to change. Now what kind of a change? Let me quickly run through some of the points made in the manifestos of the different political parties. The MNF have talked about the unification of the zoop people of the world in tune or in line with the resolution in the United Nations, the declaration on the rights of indigenous people. It's talked about the implementation of all the clauses of the 1986 peace accord which was signed by Rajiv Gandhi and at that point of time it was Lal Dengar. Though the process had been started earlier under Indira Gandhi and under the civil servant Adi Pradhan, then we'll also talk about the border issue in detail but the MNF has talked about that. Others, other political parties are also promising several things to the people. The Congress is talking about the old age pension scheme, cheap gas cylinders, cooking gas cylinders, sustainable agriculture to take agriculture away from the slash and burn or the chum cultivation, talking about health insurance covers, start-ups for entrepreneurs. The Bharti Janta Party, the BJP, is wanting to spend more on education on a medical college. They want to empower women, give 1.5 lakh rupees to every girl child, talks about the sports academy, talks about encouraging sports and in Manipur and so we have a lot of claims that have been made and a lot of I mean even the BJP says we have to solve the border dispute with Assam. We'll come to the border question a little later. What makes you think that the Zoran people's movement the ZPM led by Lal Dhohan Ma will attract voters? What is their manifesto in their promises? So the parties I think like every other state make a lot of promises in their manifestos which are hardly ever fulfilled or partially fulfilled and the people of Mizoram have seen how MNF and Congress have partially fulfilled or failed to fulfill their manifestos. Now the eye of the people is on ZPM because we don't know yet whether they will be good or they will be bad like if they will be able to fulfill what they say we cannot we don't have an experience with them yet. So it's like a risk but it seems like a good risk that's what the people especially the youth talk about they just want a change and once if ZPM comes into power then they will see how they perform and based on that in the next elections the outcome the outcome will be seen but it's not that ZPM is very good or it has a good history to show it's just that people just want to taste something different and see whether it will be good or not so they also have good candidates but each each party has some good candidates some not so good candidates so I don't think it's the candidates will have a major say but especially the youth they just want something different but it's not just the youth who will determine the outcome of the election so we don't know if what the youth want will actually come into power because especially in the rural areas in the villages the communities have like the parties the loyalty to parties is passed down from generations to generations so people might still vote for the parties which they feel like is home to them so it's hard to say but what the youth right now is that they just want change and what you had asked earlier regarding like what is like in the minds of the people when all with there were many press conferences held just before the elections every day all the parties with whole press conferences and one thing that each party would always talk about is the alliance with BJP so they always accuse each other of trying to have an alliance with BJP ZPM would say MNF is aligned with BJP under NEDA and like you should not choose them see how what is happening in Manipur and they've still not been able to leave NEDA and then Congress would say ZPM is trying to align with BJP after the elections were over so I think this was a major factor the the accusation that there are some talks of aligning with BJP or that they are already aligned with BJP that's one thing and I think another thing that the people are concerned about is health care the health care system that we currently have has failed miserably and I think this is something that people will be looking forward to to see which manifesto has promised good health care and good health care system and what would actually be practical so I think the health care is also a major issue drugs was also a major issue that was spoken about yes all right let me ask you to talk in some greater detail and some of the points that you have already mentioned the first is we look at the MISO national front the MNF that it is at one level a part of NEDA the northeast democratic alliance it is an ally of the Bharti janta party led national democratic alliance in India yet yet chief minister Zoram Thanga said I don't want to share a platform with prime minister Narendra Modi and better if he comes alone this is his words that he has been quoted as saying what made chief ministers Zoram Thanga make these points has it got something to do with the fact that Mr. Narendra Modi is seen as the champion of Hindutva whereas 87 percent or more than one million people who live in Mizoram are Christian it also has the highest concentration of schedule cast the forest forest cover but that's another story interestingly interestingly Mr. Narendra Modi has not did not campaign in Mizoram over the last nine and a half years Mr. Modi has campaigned in every state including Mizoram five years ago so Mr. Modi has not campaigned and the chief minister says I don't want to share the same platform with the prime minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi how do you how do you analyze the these statements and these developments yes so yes in Mizoram BJP is seen as a pro-hindutva party but Zoram Thanga has never actually spoken against or for BJP based on religious grounds when he said he would not share a platform with Narendra Modi it was because of what is happening in Manipur that the prime minister has not visited Manipur till today and he was silent for a very long time he ultimately spoke up but just for a few seconds about the Manipur issue and that was the main reason that he said he would not share platform with Narendra Modi and so the people were all looking towards his visit to Mizoram but I think just when the word of his visit came out there was a lot of images and a lot of words shared on Instagram and Twitter that he can visit Mizoram so why not Manipur and we don't know I don't know what was in our prime minister's mind but what the congress has accused him of is that he's afraid to come to Mizoram because he knows that the people will question why Mizoram and why not Manipur so it remains a question but that is what some of the people think that why he cancelled his visit to Mizoram. Okay you know Chief Minister Zoram Thanga has also chosen to ignore the directive from Delhi from the Ministry of Home Affairs led by Mr Amit Shah that the refugees who have come in from Myanmar they need to be identified biometrically the iris of the eye thumbprint and so on and so forth once again the Chief Minister has completely ignored this direction that has come from Delhi. Yes so what people need to understand about Mizoram is that we are a very tight-knit community if we share ethnic ties with someone we have very strong bonds with them like we will stand for them and we will defend them we will be there for them no matter what and I think what Zoram Thanga has done would have been done by any other party if they were in power in Mizoram whether it was Congress, the PM, BJP any party if they had a Mizo leader I think they would make the same decision because the refugees who have fled from Myanmar the displaced persons from Manipur all share ethnic ties with the people of Mizoram so as he said it's like doing it's like doing that to your own brothers and sisters from your own family and he said he could not do it and I think the people of Mizoram also stands by him and applaud him for that decision. Okay give me let's talk a little bit about the impact of what has happened in Manipur from the 3rd of May so it's May, June, July, August, September, October it's more than six months six and a half months. I mean it hasn't had what the fact that Manipur is burning that there is an internal war a civil war that is going on there has affected Mizoram at one level refugees both from the Métis community as well as the Kuki Zoo community have come from Mizoram they've gone there for medical treatment they find themselves safer in Mizoram at the same time surely a state with 87% Christian majority must be very unhappy that large numbers of churches have been burned. I want you to explain to the viewers of NewsClick what has been the impact of the violence and a troubled very very troubled situation currently which continues to prevail in Manipur what impact has it had and will it have on the way people have voted the way people have voted on the 7th of November how is it going to impact the politics of your state which is Mizoram. So for as long as we have known people have seen BJP as a pro-Hindu party but what has happened in Manipur has doubled it it has worsened how people view the BJP party I've done a story on the impact of Manipur on the Mizoram elections and everyone I'd interviewed from someone as old as 80 years old to some youth and teenagers everyone said that they how they see BJP has become worse after seeing and hearing what is happening in Manipur especially because of the silence of our prime minister and how the violence is going on even though they could do something no one is doing anything they feel that way and they just feel like everything is the fault of the BJP party and they they outlook towards the BJP party has gone even worse after seeing the ethnic clashes that is happening in Manipur so I think that is the mood of most of the people but the BJP on the other hand have said that they have been Mr. Kiran Rajaju when he visited Mizoram he said they have been only trying to provide solutions they did not cause the ethnic clashes so but we cannot help how people see the situation so that is how they see the situation okay give me you know it's not just what has happened in Manipur we all know that there are porous borders and it's not just a fact that Mizoram shares a border with Tripura and Assam it shares a border with Myanmar and as an aside you know the name itself is oh which is an endo name for native people and Ram which has nothing to do with the Hindu lord Ram but the land of that you see the refugees which have come from both Bangladesh and have come from Myanmar and many of them are running away from the military regime of Myanmar there are the Rohingya who have found refuge and Mizoram is seen to be a place where people can be relatively safe where they are running away from those who are oppressing them that they live now what guy I mean one estimate that I have you can correct me if I'm wrong that I at present around 40,000 people from Myanmar and Bangladesh and Manipur who are currently in Mizoram I want you to explain to me what kind of impact this has had on politics in your state so the refugee do not really have especially what is happening in Myanmar do not have a major impact on the politics in our state but it has a major impact on the financial situation in our state because our state is very poor we are like our economy is not good and on top of that it's hardly being able to provide for its government employees on top of that providing for over 40,000 people is very difficult and the Mizoram government has consistently appealed to the central government for some sort of aid the central government has remained silent even for the people of its own state for the people of Manipur the displaced persons who came from Manipur when the Mizoram government asked for aid the central government said they would send aid in kind and the state government was surprised that they would do that because it's really difficult like some volunteers are looking after the refugees and they are hardly able to provide for their families they are looking after refugee camps that are bigger than their own villages so this is just done out of purely voluntary basis purely because of ethnic ties and the christian the christian spirit that they have but we don't know for how much longer this can go on the central government needs to have a proper refugee law a proper refugee policy in place and they need to help out these people who are actually like running away who are actually in trouble who are actually fleeing for their lives so that that is the impact that it's had on our state one question when we go back in time the 1986 the peace accord which was signed by Rajiv Gandhi and Lal Dhanam if you recall the this happened just before just a little before Mizoram became a state this is the 7th of august 1986 the 23rd state of the indian union it's a landlocked state but you know when even today that accord people remember because the MNF surrendered the arms today we have seen large-scale looting of arms in Manipur we hear horrible stories of what you can call narco terrorism because of the porous borders now here i want to ask you a question as to how you see Mizoram being different not just from Manipur from the other states of northeast and to what extent do issues like this narco terrorism aid to the refugees and the fact that you have here a state which has a history of peaceful or relatively peaceful resolution of situations of armed conflict how is it affecting your state today and how has it affected or would have affected voter preferences and voter choices on the 7th of november when they voted so yes Mizoram is a very peaceful state and i think it has had one of the most successful peace accords known maybe in india or the rest of the world i'm not sure so it's because the people of Mizoram are very obedient if you come here we we have a lot of flaws but we are famous for obeying our traffic rules it some it has often gone viral how people are very obedient to traffic rules so i think that like the spirit of the people we have a lot of selflessness a lot of obedience that has helped ensuring that there are no more outbreaks of violence or terrorism to continue now even after the state has been over 35 years now and what is happening in Manipur the narco terrorism it's very it's very bad it's it's a very pitiful situation and but it does not have a direct impact on Mizoram right now we do have a lot of drugs smuggling because we have a border Indomian border the route that goes through Jampai so a lot of drug is smuggled through Mizoram so we also have a lot of drug users and the drugs are smuggled through other states too very sadly so that is a problem that we have but we don't actually have a problem of narco terrorism but we do have a big problem with drugs drug use and the drug routes which are going to our state and a very very high number of drug users which was also a very big topic in the elections a lot of the politicians were talking about how the government has failed to curb the drug problem that is happening in our state and how they are turning a blind eye towards the drug smugglers so the parties have promised that this would be resolved but let's see if that happens okay thank you so much Kimmy Colney for speaking to us for speaking to me for through me the viewers of this program to all the all the viewers of Newsclick and we'll have to wait for the 3rd of December and then we'll be able to figure out whether Zoram Dhanga will actually end up becoming the longest serving chief minister of Mizoram or whether there will be a regime change and the Zoram people movement led by Lal Duhon Ma replace Zoram Dhanga and what would be the role of the congress party in the political situation thank you once again for being with us and we'll have to wait and watch and to all the viewers of Newsclick please keep watching Newsclick subscribe to the 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