GUWAHATI: Mizoram CM Zoramthanga, whose party Mizo National Front is a partner of the BJP-led NDA, has written to PM Narendra Modi that the advisory of the ministry of home affairs to the chief secretaries of the three northeastern states bordering Myanmar and the Assam Rifles regiment guarding the border, to prevent illegal influx from Myanmar into India and initiate the deportation processes without delay, was “not acceptable to Mizoram”.
The CM said India being the largest democracy in the world and Myanmar’s immediate neighbour “needs to do more and open up more”. He urged Modi to “to intervene so that the political refugees from Myanmar are given asylum and provided food and shelter here in the country”.
Zoramthanga also pointed out to the PM that the Myanmar areas bordering Mizoram are inhabited by Chin communities, “who are ethnically our Mizo brethren with whom we have been having close contacts throughout all these years even before India became independent”.
“Therefore, Mizoram cannot just remain indifferent to their sufferings today. India cannot turn a blind eye to this humanitarian crisis unfolding right in front of us in our own backyard,” Zoramthanga wrote. He added,
Last week, the MHA’s NE division had pointed out that states and UTs have no powers to grant ‘refugee’ status to any foreigner and India is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol. The MHA’s instructions were issued amid reports of Mizoram’s Champhai issuing notification that those who are in danger of persecution from the Myanmar military junta would be regarded as refugees.