Two speeches made by Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma on a visit to the US back in September, on the ties between the Chin-Zo-Kuki tribes across India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, have created a stir. This was after a section of one of these speeches was widely circulated after being cited in an article in Goa Chronicle, accusing Lalduhoma of a “separatist agenda”.

What did Lalduhoma say, and how is it different from the idea of ‘unification’ of these tribes that has existed for a long time?

Lalduhoma spoke about the ties between the Chin-Kuki-Zo people in different states of India, including Manipur, as well as those settled in Myanmar and Bangladesh, and stressed the closely held belief among them that they are the same community divided by international boundaries. The specific part of his speech in Indianapolis, US, addressing members of the community’s diaspora, which was what caused ripples, said, “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.”

A few days earlier, in Maryland, addressing a gathering on ‘Mizo Day’, Lalduhoma had delved into this in greater detail, talking about finding a common agreed nomenclature for the many tribes under the ‘Zo’ umbrella, the history of their territory and of commonalities of their practices. He went on to wonder if these tribes spread across three countries and different states could be integrated 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 far-fetched to think this could be a possibility one day. Perhaps fate has this reunification in store for us in the future. Also, I am not oblivious to the huge responsibility I bear… towards contributing to making this dream a reality.”

The espousal of ‘reunification’ and ‘integration’ of Zo tribes by political groups in Mizoram can be traced back to the movement for formation of the state led by the Mizo National Front (MNF). The 1986 Mizo Accord signed by MNF rebels and the Indian State after two decades of insurgency mentions that the unification of Mizo-inhabited areas across different states in India under one administrative unit had been raised by the MNF delegates, but that the government could not make any commitment on this.

While Mizoram has not seen insurgency since the accord, different armed Kuki-Zo rebel groups have been active in Myanmar, Manipur and Bangladesh, and have been seeking autonomy for Kuki-Zo-inhabited areas – with some demanding integration of Zo territories.

In Mizoram, the idea of ‘reunification’ got a new life within two years of the signing of the Mizo Accord with the formation of a ‘Zo-Reunification Organization (ZoRo)’. The organisation went on to take the form of a social and cultural movement for unity.

While the ZoRo remains active, its current president R Sangkawia says there is a key difference between CM Lalduhoma’s statements and its “policy”. “Our policy is reunification of Zo people living in India, Burma and Bangladesh within one umbrella. But our weapon for this reunification is non-violence… If we achieve that, the next question is whether we shall join India, Burma, Bangladesh or a separate administration. That will be in the hands of the people,” he says.

Other civil society groups and political parties have also raised the message of unity between Zo groups in different parts.

“Reunification features in the constitutions of all political parties and all civil society groups in the state… All the Chin-Kuki-Mizos hold this idea and principle,” says Lalmuanpuia Punte, an MLA from Lalduhoma’s Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), who is also vice-president of the ZoRo.

Mizoram University professor of political science J Doungel says that the specification of integration within India and working towards that might be the key difference from what is common rhetoric in Mizoram.

“Even the previous CM spoke about reunification and that ‘we are from the same blood’… There is no difference at all between what they have said and what the present CM has said, except his mention of integration within the Indian Union. The previous CMs and even civil society organizations like ZoRo and Mizo Zirlai Pawl (Mizoram’s apex student body) talk of psychological union, that we should love one another being from the same blood, being separated by made-up artificial boundaries,” Doungel says, adding that, notably, despite Lalduhoma’s talk of reunification, he doesn’t make mention of fighting for sovereignty.”

The issue was seen to have lost mass appeal, till several developments in recent years. These include unrest in both Myanmar and Manipur, resulting in Mizoram sheltering tens of thousands of Kuki-Chin refugees from both places, with the Mizo public solidly behind this. Mizoram has even defied the Centre’s instructions to accept the refugees.

ZoRo president Sangkawia says the Centre’s decision earlier this year to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with Myanmar – which allowed tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa and stay up to two weeks – and to fence the porous Indo-Myanmar border has also fed into this sentiment.

“The younger generation have witnessed what is happening in Manipur and many of our brothers have come here as refugees. Such kinds of things are happening in Burma… We have been enjoying the FMR even before India became independent… If there is fencing, we will have no access to our own people across the border and we will be separated forever,” Sangkawia says.

Last year, Lalduhoma led the ZPM to power in Mizoram, becoming the first party other than the MNF and Congress to form a government in the state.

With the MNF being a member of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, its loss of power left Mizoram as the only state in the region where the BJP or its allies are not in government. Lalduhoma, in fact, emphasised in the run-up to the elections that the ZPM would protect its “regional character” by not joining hands with any power formation at the Centre.