UCC - Mizoram CM quit the NDA if a UCC was imposed

 Zoramthanga said his party would quit the NDA if a UCC was imposed on Mizoram.

Mizoram CM Decries UCC, Rejects Accusation of 'Meddling' in Manipur's Affairs

The Wire Staff

POLITICS

29/JUL/2023

New Delhi: Mizoram chief minister and Mizo National Front (MNF) leader Zoramthanga said his party will leave the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) if a uniform civil code (UCC) was imposed on Mizoram.

He said this in an interview to the Hindustan Times published on Saturday, July 29.

“As far as being [a] member of the NDA is concerned, my party is among the founding members of the NDA. But that does not mean that we will follow every policy. When [an] issue comes against the interest of the Mizo people, my party will totally object to it,” Zoramthanga told HT.

He continued: “I and my party totally reject [the] UCC … if [the] UCC is going to be imposed in Mizoram, we cannot be part of [the] NDA.”

The former secessionist fighter clarified that he believed the Union government wouldn’t let matters reach that breaking point.

“I believe that the NDA will in the way that is [sic] wise enough, mature enough and see that a thing like UCC does not help them. I don’t think that they [will] make any issue which will necessitate the MNF leaving the NDA,” HT quoted him as saying.

The UCC is a proposed single set of laws that would uniformly govern personal matters, including marriage, divorce and inheritance across India’s different religious communities.

While Zoramthanga has opposed a UCC on the grounds that it would conflict with the Mizos’ constitutionally protected customary laws, the BJP – which leads the NDA –  supports a UCC and has consistently promised to implement one.

‘I do not interfere in Manipur’s internal affairs’

In its interview, HT also addressed accusations against Zoramthanga that he was interfering in the internal affairs of Manipur, which continues to be affected by deadly ethnic violence.

Mizoram state’s Mizo community bears close ethnic ties to the Chin people of Myanmar and the Kuki people of Manipur.

The latter are one of the two warring factions in Manipur’s violence, with the other being the state’s majority Meitei ethnic group.

When a video surfaced earlier this month of two Kuki women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted by a mob allegedly comprising Meitei men, Zoramthanga participated in a solidarity march for the Manipur’s Kuki community on Tuesday, July 26.

“The wound is deep and it is very difficult to heal this with a pain-killer. It needs a thorough investigation,” he said about the state’s ethnic conflict.

Zoramthanga at the solidarity march in Aizawl on July 26. Photo: Twitter/@ITFLMedia_Cell.

People in Manipur responded by burning effigies of Zoramthanga in Imphal, the state’s capital city, and chief minister and BJP leader N. Biren Singh asked his Mizoram counterpart “not to interfere in the … internal affairs of other [states]”, the Imphal Free Press reported.

Zoramthanga told HT in response to Biren Singh’s remarks that “because of the trouble in Manipur, thousands of … Kuki internally displaced persons (IDPs) have come to Mizoram. Whether it is forced upon me or not, we have to act and find a solution for it as it affects me.”

Over 12,000 Kuki people displaced by the violence have sought refuge in Mizoram.

Zoramthanga alleged that the union home ministry’s help to his administration in handling the influx of Kuki refugees into his state was “not enough”.

He also spoke about accepting Chin refugees fleeing the civil war in Myanmar, as well as other ethnically-related people leaving Bangladesh for India.

“As far as Bangladesh and Myanmar are concerned … we are not signatory to UN Refugees. I told my chief secretary that we are merely following what … India had done in 1970 and 1971 when millions of East Pakistan refugees had crossed over to India and [were] looked after by the government of India,” he told HT. 

“If East Pakistan people were given that support, why can’t we give it to people from Burma/Myanmar? The same formula has to be applied.”

‘No anger against the NDA’

Zoramthanga told HT that while he was surprised by what he said were inadequate efforts of the Union government in helping the refugees of Manipur’s violence, he would continue to remain a partner within the NDA.

“I have no anger against the NDA; it has been constituted by a number of political parties to form an alliance. With the present Union government, I am a little surprised by their attitude in dealing with Manipur and not giving help to the refugees,” he said. 

“Therefore, I requested the prime minister, the Union home minister, and the central government to look into the refugee and IDPs’ crises from a different angle.”

On what it would take to end the state’s violence, Zoramthanga said the following: 

“My solution is, let the Manipur and the central governments come together and consult the concerned people (Kuki and the Meitei people) and let the Union government settle this politically. That is the only solution.”