"Assam Rifles is deeply ingrained in the social fabric of far east"
The BJP-led Manipur Govt asserted on Tuesday yet again that "Border fencing" is a must for northeastern India's point of view.
"Border fencing has to be done whether people like it or not ... And also ... people like it or not, the Free Movement Regime (FMR) in new form has to be enforced because we cannot continue saying that during the time of Aurangzeb we used to crossover from north India to Myanmar," Manipur Chief Minister's new advisor Lt Gen Nishikanta Singh (Retd) said in Delhi.
Addressing a seminar on 'Security Challenges to the North East : Assessment and Way Forward'; Lt Gen Nishikanta (advisor-coordination to new Manipur CM, Yumnam Khemchand Singh) said - " .... every tribe, every group will want more number of seats (in state assembly) because India being democracy; power lies in the number of seats".
On this backdrop he said " ... so everyone will say, we want delimitation; we want more seats. Today, we have a lot of debate on immigration. We also have environmental challenges posed by people clearing jungles and other things. Millions of trees have been planted in Manipur; but I do not know how many have really surprised".
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| File snap: Lt Gen Nishikanta (Retd) |
He as of now there are a few serious challenges those ought to be handled carefully in states such as Manipur. They are - NRC, effective implementation of Special Intensive Revision (SIR), census.
On this backdrop he went onto add: "People do not want Census till NRC is done.. and demand for delimitation".
He also said forces like Assam Rifles are doing exemplary job in the north east.
The central government move “to fence the India-Myanmar border” and “reconsider the Free Movement Regime (FMR)” was first made public by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Jan 20, 2024 in Guwahati.
The FMR as a mechanism was decided India and Myanmar first in 1950 to allow 'natives' to move freely into each other's territories without passports or visas.
India and Myanmar share 1,643 kilometers of land border covering four Indian states – Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. The 1950 agreement underwent several changes over the years, and in 2004, India limited the free movement to 16 kilometers into India from the earlier 40 kilometers.
In 2018, India and Myanmar had signed the Agreement on Land Border Crossing to “facilitate regulation and harmonization of already existing free movement rights for people ordinarily residing in the border areas of both countries".
Speaking on the occasion, DG Assam Rifles Lt Gen Vikas Lakhera said - "The Assam Rifles will keep on taking the initiative like this seminar (for outreach at the national level to understand complex dynamics of north east India)".
"We have reached out to every students unions of north east communities in Delhi. Every year since last year we have Unity Utsav in which more than 3000 to 4000 students participate. Our liaison officer in Delhi can be contacted by students for any problem they face," he said.
General Lakhera also said that - "We (Assam Rifles) is not the only para military force of India. We are deeply ingrained in the social fabric of far east of the country. Our troops speak every local dialect ... We believe battle cannot be won by gun battle has to be won by many other things. Gun is to protect".
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| DGAR - Lt Gen Lakhera |
Security dynamics vis-a-vis India's eastern front and countries such as Myanmar and Bangladesh were also discussed at the day long seminar.
It was also addressed among others by Maj Gen JS Nanda (Retd), formerly India's Defence Advisor to Bangladesh and Lt Gen P C Nair (Retd), former DG Assam Rifles.
ends
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