Rahul Karmakar
AIZAWL
Teresa Manhau used to pray twice a day until May 3 when the fire of ethnic violence engulfed Sugnu Zoveng, her village on the border between Chandel and Kakching districts in Manipur.
She added a prayer specifically for the safety of her community as she and other Kuki-Zo people kept moving through the hills to reach Mizoram’s capital Aizawl a fortnight later.
The 65-year-old has now added a fourth prayer – for the next Mizoram government to be as considerate as the current one headed by the Mizo National Front (MNF) but stronger to help them return home.
Elisabeth Vungkhanching, displaced from a Zo tribal village on the periphery of Manipur’s Imphal Valley dominated by the non-tribal Meitei people, has the same prayers on her lips.
“We have been made to feel at home in Mizoram but I cannot find peace until I return to our ancestral land. It has been almost five months since we left the home that was reduced to ashes,” she said, the pain of being separated from her siblings and eight of her nine children writ large on her face.
Ms. Manhau and Ms. Vungkhanching are among more than 300 people belonging to 56 Kuki-Zo families displaced from Manipur living in a Mizoram government residential block at Falkland on the outskirts of Aizawl.
Falkland has the largest concentration of more than 12,500 people displaced from Manipur, most of whom are living with relatives scattered across Mizoram. Falkland is in the Aizawl East-I Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister Zoramthanga, also the president of the MNF.
The MNF’s election manifesto promises the unification of the Zo communities such as the dominant Mizos of Mizoram, Kukis of Manipur, and Chins of Myanmar and Bangladesh. While the credo of cultural and political integration through ‘Zo unification’ has struck a chord in Mizoram, it is seen as fanning secession in Manipur.
“We are grateful to the Mizoram government, particularly the Chief Minister, for providing us shelter and taking up our cause. We hope and pray that the next government by whichever party or coalition is sympathetic to us and helps us go back to where we belong,” John Zo, a Manipur-displaced church elder and Falkland camp leader said.
The Zo issue has been a part of the campaign of Mr. Zoramthanga, whose rivals for the Aizawl East-I seat are Lalthansanga of Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), Lalsanglura Ralte of Congress, and Lalruatfeli Hlawndo, an independent.
“The protection and welfare of the Zo people come first for the MNF,” a local campaign manager of the Chief Minister said, insisting no other political party has been as vocal as the MNF about the people displaced from Manipur.
ZPM president Lalduhoma, a former IPS officer, said the MNF was trying to capitalise on the Manipur violence in order to cover up for five years of failing the people of Mizoram. “All political parties have been equally sensitive about the displaced people but not all are trying to derive political mileage from their misery,” he said.
Leaders of the Congress and the BJP, the two other major parties vying for berths in the 40-member State Assembly, said no political party can afford to be indifferent to the cause of persecuted Zo people who have taken refuge in Mizoram “although they are voters in Manipur.”
The MNF, ZPM, and Congress are contesting 40 seats each while the BJP has fielded candidates in 23 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party is the only other political party in the fray, contesting four seats.
