The Mizoram Assembly election has apparently become a show of which political party cares more for people who have taken refuge from two of India’s neighbours.
For the first time in five decades, foreigners have become a poll issue in Mizoram much like in neighbouring Assam where “Bangladeshis” have been an electoral staple. But while the thrust in Assam has been on driving the non-citizens out, Mizoram has made the refuge-seekers feel at home.
Mizoram is currently hosting about 33,000 Chin people from Myanmar and some 800 Kuki-Chins from Bangladesh. The Chins and Kuki-Chins are ethnically related to the majority Mizos of Mizoram, who prefer to refer to their “brothers and sisters” from across the international borders as displaced people and not refugees or foreigners.
