New Delhi/Guwahati:
A speech by Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma in the US in September has gone viral now. Mizoram government sources had told NDTV he spoke about reunification of the Zo people under India. However, he gave two speeches, one of which sparked the row.

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New Delhi/Guwahati:

A speech given by Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma in the US nearly two months ago on reunification of the Zo people, which has gone viral now, has no element of controversy as the Chief Minister spoke about reunification under India, sources in the Mizoram government told NDTV.

Lalduhoma made the comment at an event to celebrate Mizo Day in Maryland on September 2. At the outset, the Chief Minister said he came to the US after taking permission from the Ministry of External Affairs, and he shared his itinerary with them.

Lalduhoma in his address on September 2 said, “… The main objective of [the] ZORO Movement in 1988 was Zo-Reunification within India. Can the ‘Zo’ people in India, Burma and Bangladesh today, aspire to be re-united under India? Looking at the geopolitical realities of our time, it may not be so farfetched to think this could be a possibility one day. Perhaps, fate has this reunification in store for us in the future…”

The full text of the September 2 speech is available on the website of the Mizoram government’s Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR).

The Mizoram Chief Minister gave another speech on September 4, this time in Indianapolis, where he said his people have been “unjustly divided.” It is this September 4 speech which has triggered a massive controversy.

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In his address to the Zo diaspora in the US, Lalduhoma said: “… As I approach the end of my speech, I want to let everyone here know that the primary reason I accepted the invitation to visit the United States is to seek a path towards unity for all of us.

“We are one people – brothers and sisters – and we cannot afford to be divided or apart from one another. I want us to have the conviction and confidence that one day, through the strength of God, who made us a nation, we will rise together under one leadership to achieve our destiny of nationhood.

“While a country may have borders, a true nation transcends such limitations. We have been unjustly divided, forced to exist under three different governments in three different countries, and this is something we can never accept.

“We are fortunate that we are still connected through our lands and that there are no pretenders to insert themselves in our midst and cause division – this truly is a blessing from God…”

The full text of the September 4 speech is also available on the Mizoram government DIPR’s website.

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From politicians to academics, many have raised concerns over Lalduhoma’s speech in Indianapolis, with questions varying from what the law says about how an elected person should conduct themselves abroad to the wildly conspiratorial claim by ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that a certain nation wants to “carve out a Christian country” by taking parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh.

“Can someone who has taken an oath of allegiance to the Indian Constitution speak in a way that suggests breaking India apart? Do the Mizoram Council of Churches and other church bodies across India support Lalduhoma’s communal, divisive, and anti-national stance? Is Lalduhoma speaking for himself? Or for the external powers who want to reshape South Asia’s geopolitical scene?” former two-time BJP MP Balbir Punj said in a post on X.

The following speech of Chief Minister of #Mizoram PU Lalduhoma (@Lal_Duhoma) is self-explanatory. In his speech, he shares his vision of an independent ‘Christian state’ encompassing Christian-majority areas in three different countries. It is easy to deduce that these countries… pic.twitter.com/hHKq9Oum9E

— Balbir Punj (@balbirpunj) November 4, 2024

Dr Arambam Noni, associate professor of political science at DM University Manipur, said ethnocentric accumulation of people for a homeland will disturb the overlapping demographic spaces.

“He seems to be sort of trying to aggravate the relationship between overlapping multiethnic demographic spaces, which can lead to conflict. He is trying to signal as if demography is going to play a big role in the making of a homeland,” Dr Arambam, who has been speaking in public forums on northeast issues especially those concerning Mizoram’s neighbour Manipur, told NDTV.

‘Demography Is Dated Politics’

“Demography is dated politics and is sectarian in some sense. The problem with the idea of transnational, territorial and ethnic unification in post-colonial states is that no mechanisms exist to do this. The modern state system cannot entertain such an idea simply because it contravenes the historically established territorialities. However, there is no problem in developing a cultural affinity,” Dr Arambam said.

“He (Lalduhoma) is saying that colonialism divided and dispersed their people in three different countries. But at the same time he is using the idioms of colonial culture to reunify the same people. This culture that he is using to connect people was an invention of colonialism,” Dr Arambam said.

“Interspace tranquillity must also be kept in mind while vouching for pan ethnic homeland,” he added.

Lalduhoma became Chief Minister after his Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) defeated the Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga in the assembly election in December 2023. The MNF, which won 26 seats in the 2018 state election, won only 10 in the December polls.

The ZPM was registered as a political party in 2019. The party won 27 seats – up from 8 seats in the 2019 polls – in the election that propelled Lalduhoma to the top post.