INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
AIZAWL: Mizoram CM Zoramthanga, who is president of the Mizo National Front (MNF), a BJP ally, said on Monday that the state government and
his party are not afraid of the NDA government at the Centre.Addressing party workers at Hnam Run (MNF party office) in Aizawl, Zoramthanga
said, "Political parties in India are forming alliances in the name of BJP-led NDA or, more recently, Congress-led INDIA, and MNF is an
alliance partner of the NDA
Though we are with the NDA, we do not subscribe to the policies and objectives of the NDA." No party other than the MNF courageously
objected to the proposed uniform civil code (UCC) at NDA meetings as most of them only want to be on good terms with Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, he added."The MNF never changes its stance when the government changes at the Centre," he said, adding that the party strongly opposed
the UCC because the MNF opposes anything that is detrimental to its motto "For God and the country".On allegations of MNF being afraid of
BJP, Zoramthanga said the BJP-led central government instructed the Mizoram government to push back all the refugees from Myanmar, but they
flatly refused."I announced in the assembly house that we will not deport them (Myanmar refugees), but will rather give them shelter and
The MNF and BJP work together for development, but not on Mizo and religious issues, and we do not say 'Ji saheb' (Yes, sir) to whatever
they say," he said.Expressing his support for a "Greater Mizoram" through inclusion of the ethnic Mizo-inhabited areas of Manipur,
Zoramthanga said Mizos in Manipur should make a move in accordance with Article 3 of the Constitution rather than coercion
"The ethnic Mizo brothers in Manipur are now demanding a separate administration, which is paving the way for achieving re-unification," he
The Mizoram government and the people received the internally displaced people of Manipur with open arms and will eat and drink whatever the
people of the state eat and drink, he said.Zoramthanga said he has reminded the Union home secretary that the funds sought for providing
assistance to displaced Manipuris sheltering in Mizoram are yet to be released
"In order to put pressure on the Centre, I said millions of refugees from the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) taking shelter in West
Bengal in 1971 were taken care of by the Indian government," he added.
