Of course, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, also a neo-confidant of Home Miniser Amit Shah, wants. He had September 2023 urged the Centre to permanently wind up the Free Movement Regime along the Indo-Myanmar border to curb “illegal immigration”.
But on face on strong objections from all key states such as Mizoram and Nagaland, the Union Home Minister on Tuesday, Feb 6, said the central government has decided to construct a fence along the entire 1643-kilometer-long Indo-Myanmar border to facilitate better surveillance.
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| Pangsha border : Nagaland |
"The Modi government is committed to building impenetrable borders," he declared.
In his post on X, Mr Amit Shah said “It has decided to construct a fence along the entire 1643-kilometer-long Indo-Myanmar border. To facilitate better surveillance, a patrol track along the border will also be paved".
Such a tweet when Parliament session is on makes thing appear more serious.
“Out of the total border length, a 10 km stretch in Moreh, Manipur, has already been fenced. Furthermore, two pilot projects of fencing through a Hybrid Surveillance System (HSS) are under execution. They will fence a stretch of one km each in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
Additionally, fence works covering approximately 20 km in Manipur have also been approved, and the work will start soon,” he added.
The sealing of the border as proposed impacts indigenous tribes like Nagas and Mizos who share faith, ethnic and kinship ties cutting across political border.
After the Mizoram government, various other organisations have opposed the Centre's move to fence the India-Mayanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between the two countries.
The decision will impact the social and family lives of indigenous tribes such as Nagas and Mizos who share ethnic affinity and kinship ties that cut across political borders.
By Dec-Jan the centre decided to go for border fencing. "We are going to end the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the Indo-Myanmar border soon," a source had said adding, the fencing will be completed in the next four-five years. Anyone coming through will have to get a visa".
Under the FMR, every member of the hill tribes, who is either a citizen of India or a citizen of Myanmar and who is resident of any area within 16 km on either side of the border can cross over on production of a border pass with one-year validity and can stay up to two weeks.
The plan “to fence the India-Myanmar border” and “reconsider the Free Movement Regime (FMR)” was made public by Federal Home Minister Amit Shah on Jan. 20 in Guwahati city in the north-eastern state of Assam.
Shah is a close confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is considered the second in command in his government.
“I want to tell my friends [in the northeast region] that the Narendra Modi government has decided to fence India's open border along with Myanmar just like we have fenced the country's border along with Bangladesh," Shah said in Guwahati.
The government is also rethinking the FMR by which India and Myanmar agreed in 1950 to allow natives to move freely into each other's territories without passports or visas, he revealed.
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 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,” according to an official statement.
But the northeast Indian region has proved an administrative nightmare. The ongoing clashes between the tribal Kuki Christians and the Hindu majority Meitei in Manipur state have resulted in a large number of people fleeing the state.
Mizoram CM Lalduhoma (ZPM) had said that the border with Myanmar in Mizoram was "unilaterally imposed" by the British without consulting the people and the Mizo-Zo-Chin community people living on both sides of the border do not accept the boundary.
Manipur, which is ruled by Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, has 41.39 percent Hindus while Christians, mostly tribal people, are 41.29 percent, according to the 2011 census. Tribal Christians form a majority in Mizoram and Nagaland, while they are in sizeable numbers in Arunachal Pradesh.
Their shared faith, ethnic and kinship ties, especially with the people from Myanmar’s Chin state, prompt the tribal Christians to welcome refugees with open arms.
Mizoram state alone has some 30,000 Maymar refugees sheltered in camps with the state government allocating funds for them in open defiance of the federal government’s ban. Similarly, around 6,000 refugees from Myanmar have taken shelter in Manipur state, authorities confirmed in December 2023.
At the height of the ethnic violence in Manipur year, Shah blamed the influx of Kukis from Myanmar. This was creating “insecurity among the Meiteis,” the federal home minister told parliament on Aug. 9, 2023.
New Delhi is concerned that the problem might just grow bigger. The Nagas have been demanding a “Greater Nagalim,” a homeland for Naga people spread across contiguous Naga areas, both in India and Myanmar.
Similarly, a demand for “Greater Mizo land” was raised by Mizo leaders in the 1980s. Considering their demographic spread in the region, both Naga and Mizo communities may have a valid point in wanting to live in a common administrative area. But this is easier said than done considering the geo-political and security situation that prevails now.
ends
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