Founded way back in 1935, the Young Mizo Association has come a long way and in the process negotiated with various ups and downs in the politics of youth uprising, but the year 2014 would be a remarkable year for itself.
In Mizoram or
interacting with Mizos one would often face a rather succinctly made remark,
“If Young Mizo Association (YMA) did not exist, we would have to invent it”.
I
tend to agree with this.
Originally founded
as Young Lushai Association (YLA) ever since I have been following YMA perhaps
also with other youth organizations in north-east like Naga Students’
Federation (NSF) and All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), I have found it functioning slightly
differently. Looking at them one could easily reflect upon the Chinese leader
Mao Zedong’s statement: “A revolution is
not the same as inviting people to dinner or writing an essay or painting a
picture or embroidering a flower…”.
Founded in 1935,
YMA (or YLA) has been striving hard to work for the people particularly in the
field of ‘cultural conservation’ of the Mizo tribe.
Over the years it
has been working on various socio-cultural issues like alcoholism and forest
conservation; and accordingly, the good works have been recognized too.
The latest such a high-level admiration came from none other than the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, who in 2013 conferred on YMA leadership the prestigious National Award for Outstanding Service in the field of Prevention of Alcoholism and Substance (Drug) Abuse as the "Best Non-Profit Institution" from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India. The award carries a medal, a citation and a cash award of Rs 4 lakh.
Earlier, from time to time the YMA has
been recipient of other
such awards like Indira Priyadarshini
Vrikshamitra Awards (1986), Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar of 1993 from the union
Ministry of Environment and Forests and also the Excellence Service Award from
the Government of Mizoram for the three consecutive years, in 1988, 1989 and
1990.
But of all its
achievements perhaps a most significant one was in 2013-2014 when it worked
ceaselessly to ensure release of Deep Mondal, abducted by Bru extremists and the
NLFT cadres and kept in captivity for more than 50 days in Bangladesh.
Mondal hailing
from West Bengal was in Mizoram in connection
with his job with a telecom service provider.
Reports from
Aizawl in November 2013 had said that Mondal was abducted along with two native Mizos — Sanglianthanga
and Lalzamliana — from interiors Mamit district.
While the two Mizos were released first by
January 22nd , 2014 Mondal
had continue to remain in captivity as the NLFT commanders allegedly still
waited for ‘ransom’ to be paid.
It was then that YMA had taken a serious
plunge into the murkier world of insurgency-kidnapping industry supposedly
mastered well by the Tripura-based militant group NLFT.
The central committee of the Young Mizo
Association (YMA) held a crucial meeting
in Aizawl and decided to warn that Mizos would launch a mass search operation including
in the jungles of Bangladesh if Deep Mondal, abducted by Bru extremists and the
NLFT cadres, and kept in captivity for more than 50 days in Bangladesh, was “not
released” at the earliest.
“If the abductors do not release him on or
before January 31, the Mizo people will launch a traditional search operation,”
a statement had said. This gesture was
certainly unprecedented as most youth organizations in the northeast India –
tribal-based or otherwise – have been generally afflicted with the serious
menace of parochialism. Mondal was an outsider.
In fact, in 1990, the then union Home
Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed in the V P Singh ministry had in a written reply
in Lok Sabha formally described the much influential Naga Students’ Federation
(NSF) as a “parochial body”. One can add that those were different days and
even word ‘parochial’ was unpalatable to NSF and the then NSF chief R Paphino
had demanded apology from Congress MP Late Shikiho Sema.
Less talk about the parochialism of AASU
it’s better as the partisan approach had derailed the highly successful mass
movement and at a later stage, the AASU-turned AGP lawmakers found themselves guided
by selfish motives, corruption and administrative hara-kiri.
But YMA has stood by its principle even as
at times organizations like Mizo
Zirlai Pawl (MZP) or the Mizo students’ federation got itself embroiled into parochialism.
Moreover, even till late 1990s, Vai (outsider)-bashing was an annual
ritual.
The protest in 1992 over the admission of
the then DIG in Mizoram, Kiran Bedi’s daughter into a popular medical college
in Delhi was
one such campaign. But it was not a parochial protest. It was a protest rally
as Mizos felt let down by a mechanism of law under the rules the northeastern
states have. What Bedi did in Mizoram was exploit a loophole in the law.
All northeastern states are given ‘quota’ essentially
to ensure that at least some youngsters (natives) get admission in good
educational institutions for medical and engineering courses. These quotas used
to be generally mired in controversies. As a cop posted in that state, Kiran
Bedi smartly made use of the same. People had taken to the streets in anger,
and as they say, rest is history. Thanks to selective amnesia of Indian media
and a test case of remoteness of Mizoram, Kiran Bedi stood pristine clean, at
least in Lutyen’s city. And in 2011 undoubtedly she was standing shoulder to
shoulder with Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare in country’s famous ‘battle’
against corruption. And some of us, albeit in minority, bite our nails (read
leaked the wounds), lamenting: if abuse of power and law is corruption, the
biographer of the book, ‘I Dare’ (read Kiran Bedi) would find it difficult to
plea, ‘not guilty’.
GOOD ONE
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