New Delhi:

Comments made by Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma at an event in the US in September have been deliberately taken out of context, and video clips of his address have been shared without showing the full context of what he said, top sources in the Mizoram government with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.

Some sections with an agenda are trying hard to malign both the Centre and the state government, sources said, adding legal action against them cannot be ruled out.

Mr Lalduhoma visited the US for a week beginning August 30, and addressed the large Mizo community settled in the US on September 2 and 4. Two months later, parts of his speech on the aspiration of the Zo people living in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar to be reunited under India went viral on social media.

Mr Lalduhoma towards the end of his address on September 4 in Indianapolis had said the reason why he accepted the invitation from the diaspora to visit the US was to “seek a path towards unity for all of us” and to “… 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,” Mr Lalduhoma had said.

‘Agenda-Driven Attempts’

Sources told NDTV this comment has been made to go viral by sections who have an agenda when the nuances of the Chief Minister’s address were very clear – i.e. nothing was said that was anti-India; on the contrary the Chief Minister’s full text of the speeches show a culturally unifying call for the Zo people across borders, especially in Myanmar’s Chin hills region, from where the junta has been pushed back.

The September 4 speech that mentioned “nationhood” is on the same lines as the September 2 address where Mr Lalduhoma clearly spoke about the desire of the Zo people for unification under India, sources said, adding the Chief Minister also mentioned about the “geopolitical realities” at present.

“It is in the nation’s interest to have peace in the region. The Zo people living across the borders have to be culturally united under India to withstand covert designs aimed at destabilising the region. That was the message the Chief Minister was giving,” a top source in the state government told NDTV in Delhi.

“At least in theory, philosophically, even the controversial idea of an Akhand Bharat is a unifying idea, and the call for unification of cross-border peoples who share the same ethnic ties is well within that idea, which is not anti-national. This is all theoretical, but you get the point,” said the source, adding those who are seeing a conspiracy where there is none should step back and take a relook at what the Chief Minister said, in the context of changing geopolitical realities.

‘Centre Knows There’s No Controversy’

The US visit was cleared by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Mr Lalduhomahad had said in his address in Maryland to celebrate Mizo Day.

Indian officials also attended the two events, and the Chief Minister ensured that printouts of the speeches translated into both Mizo and English were given to the attendees including the officials, the sources said, requesting anonymity.

Mr Lalduhoma had thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the unconditional support they have been giving to Mizoram to handle the refugee crisis owing to the conflict in Myanmar.

The text of the speeches has been on the Mizoram government’s website for the last two months, until some vested interests brought it up and twisted it with a malicious intent, sources said.

“The word ‘hnam‘ in Mizo was translated as ‘nationhood’, which is not. When the Chief Minister said land has borders, what he meant was community, ethnic group and blood relations don’t have borders. But it was taken as literally meaning nationhood. So this was the primary misunderstanding of his speech,” the source said.

“What is very unfortunate is there seems to be some propaganda against us. Mr Lalduhoma was a former Indian Police Service officer, a former MP, a five-time MLA and now Chief Minister. His loyalty and commitment to the nation is second to none. He is probably the most qualified among all chief ministers, the most Indian for that matter. So thinking of him as a separatist, agenda-driven is just not possible,” the source said.

“Our voices have to be heard. If the rhetoric continues, people will assume wrong things about our state… In his Maryland speech, he (Mr Lalduhoma) went on to say that if we were not part of India today, if Mizoram were to be independent, would we find another India? I don’t think any other country would literally spoon feed us, take care of us like India is doing. He even gave the example of minorities in China. Look at the situation out there [in China]. We are proud Indians today. That was really the message that he was trying to get out,” the source said.

“It is very clear; it is about reunification under India… This is something which we want to make very clear,” said the source, who has a first-hand view of the matter.

Geopolitical Dimension

Mizoram government sources said it has been nearly three years since the coup in Myanmar, and feeding and taking care of all the displaced people and refugees in a small state as Mizoram remains a huge challenge. There are also concerns over a rise in drug trafficking. The sources said the Mizoram government can’t thank the central government enough for the massive help it has been giving to ensure enough resources are available with the state to tide over the refugee crisis.

“The people of Mizoram are not immune to the strain that all these efforts bring. There is especially a growing dissatisfaction even in our own community, especially from the intellectual circle. Yes, we are welcoming them as brothers and sisters, but what are we getting back in return? We are getting drugs, this and that. So the frustration is growing, obviously,” the source said.

NDTV had reported that a portion of Mr Lalduhoma’s speech in the US which mentioned the state “cannot fight three enemies simultaneously” had been taken out of context on social media, with clips of this speech beginning only from the middle being shared widely.

In the full speech uploaded on the ‘USA Mizo News’ YouTube channel, Lalduhoma referring to a point in time in history said, “So far as ZORO was concerned, the main policy of ZORO was to have reunification within India. We cannot fight Myanmar, we cannot fight India, we cannot fight Bangladesh simultaneously. We cannot afford to have three enemies which are bigger than us…”

The entire controversy, hence, is about this portion of Mr Lalduhoma’s speech on September 4 in Indianapolis i.e. his closing comments – which remained trouble-free for two months till vested interests and agenda-driven elements twisted it, sources said.

Mr 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.

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.

Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet to this big story

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.