00:00 Namaskar. Welcome to another episode of editorial.
00:04 The Manipur fire seems to be spreading, spreading to Mizoram now.
00:11 The Mizoram has warned Methis to get out of Mizoram for their own safety.
00:17 Let's discuss that. Let's get right into the show.
00:24 There is an organization called PAMRA that is, that actually used to be the former
00:31 underground armed wing of Mizo National Party. And PAMRA stands for Peace Accord
00:38 MNF Returnees Association. P-A-M-R-A. They have asked the Methis, in light of their safety,
00:47 they will be responsible if something unpleasant occurs to them.
00:52 What they have asked them is to get out of Mizoram. What they have said is,
00:57 the situation in Mizoram has become tense and it is no longer safe for Methi people
01:03 from Manipur to live in Mizoram, in the wake of barbaric and heinous attacks committed by
01:09 miscreants in Manipur. What they have said is, if any violence should happen upon Methis in
01:16 Mizoram, the Methis themselves shall bear the responsibility. Like I said earlier, in the light
01:22 of their safety, they will be responsible if something unpleasant occurs to them, said the
01:29 press release. Now, while speaking to PTI, their head Lal Tenloa said, "We simply appeal to Methis
01:36 to leave for their state to avoid any untoward incident. We do not serve them any diktat or
01:44 nor this any warning." So, like I said, the fire has spread. Now, what I don't understand is,
01:53 what is Pamra talking about? Pamra themselves says that the violence has been created by some
02:02 miscreants in Manipur. Why are they blaming the poor Methis of Mizoram for this? Why are they
02:10 asking them to get out? Why are they creating the situation so tense? In fact, I would say,
02:16 they should go out of their way to ensure safety of Methis in Mizoram. That would have been an
02:22 example. Anyway, let me talk a little about Pamra. Now, Pamra actually is, like I told you, the
02:29 armed wing of MNF. MNF is Mizo National Front. Mizo National Front is part of the NDA alliance
02:38 and Mizo National Front was also part of that 38 parties that went for the recent NDA
02:46 United meeting. So, that is Mizo National Front. But let me give you a background about
02:52 Mizo National Front. In 1959, when the Mizo hills were part of Assam, the region was hit by a
03:00 devastating famine and subsequently it resulted to boom in rodents, in rats. Now, these rodents
03:09 caused plague. So, primarily, these rodents caused plague and starvation, resulted in the death of
03:17 many and disrupted everyday life in that particular place. During this period of havoc, a cultural
03:25 organization rose to the occasion and the cultural organization was protesting against the inaction
03:32 of government of that day for solving the problem. They said that there is no action coming from the
03:37 government and this society, this organization was called the Mizo Cultural Society, which was
03:44 formed in 1955. But in 1960, it renamed itself into Mizo National Famine Front. In 1961, MNFF,
03:56 like I said, Mizo National Famine Front had reorganized itself as an insurgent outfit
04:05 demanding for autonomy for Mizo hills. The Mizo National Front was formed on 22nd October 1961
04:15 and if you remember Lal Denga, Lal Denga was the head of that. He was the president. And amidst the
04:22 secessionist wave that ran across the state in 1960s, the MNF launched a major uprising against
04:29 government in 1966 and fought the state for close to two decades. In June 1986, we signed the
04:39 Mizoram Peace Accord and it was signed between the MNF and the government of India. As per the
04:45 agreement, the region would be given statehood and a separate state of Mizoram was born in 1987.
04:54 This is the story of Mizoram and this is the story of MNF. Now, interestingly, MNF chief
05:00 Lal Denga became the state's first chief minister. Now, this is the story of MNF.
05:07 The same group, which was once militant, then became part of mainstream politics of India,
05:14 now aligned with NDA, the ruling dispensation of the country, but their militant group
05:21 threatening Metis to get out of Mizoram. Now, I will tell you something else about
05:27 Mizoram. Let us talk about how Mizoram is placed. Christians are 87.16 percent of population
05:34 in Mizoram. Buddhism is 8.51 percent population. Hinduism is 2.75 percent population. Islam 1.35
05:42 percent population and others are 0.23 percent population. And Mizoram National Front, just for
05:50 your information, has one Lok Sabha seat and one Rajya Sabha seat in the assembly. This is what
05:56 the story is. Manipur is sending for ATR flights to Mizoram to get Metis to come into Manipur and
06:05 ensure that they are brought into Manipur safe. In fact, Manipur police is also making arrangement
06:11 for the safety of Metis who are going to come into Manipur from Mizoram. Now, all this is
06:16 happening. Now, all these steps that Manipur is taking, which is good, but I wish they would have
06:23 taken the same steps even for their own sake when the Kuki and the Methi clash happened. I wish they
06:30 could have taken the same step. Now, before I get any further, I have done an interview with Brinda,
06:35 the former assistant superintendent of police, Manipur. I have done a candid interview with her.
06:42 She has told us a lot of facts, the way she saw it. And do watch that interview. It is a very,
06:49 very important interview. Do watch it. It is there in the channel. I will also try and attach the
06:54 link in my description box. But do watch that interview. The point that I wanted to make here
07:00 is, A, it is unfortunate that we are not able to contain Manipur issue. In fact, it is unfortunate
07:08 that we are not able to contain Manipur clash by the look of it, with all experts, people who are
07:16 staying there, people who experienced it, all of them put together. What we see is, this clash
07:21 that happened in Manipur could have been avoided, could have been stopped, could have been contained.
07:27 But it was purely because of the fact that it was purely an administrative failure. Let us put it
07:33 that way. It was purely an administrative failure. Of course, the Chief Minister still remains the
07:38 Chief Minister. Of course, the Centre has asked no questions to the Chief Minister. The Women and
07:43 Child Ministry has asked no questions to the Chief Minister. And everything is perfectly going the
07:49 way it is. In fact, the Chief Minister of Manipur is now trying to protect Methis from Mizoram,
07:55 which is not wrong. But the fact remains that, you see, I wish that he had protected his own people
07:59 when the time was right. That was one. Secondly, also what we understand from my interview with
08:07 former ASP Brinda is that drugs, poppies are not just, can't be just blamed on the cookies,
08:16 the cultivation, can't be just blamed on the cookies. The cookies are involved in poppy
08:20 cultivation, but you just can't blame it on the cookies alone. So, there is a lot more to that.
08:25 Like I said, do watch that interview, you will come to know a lot more. So, the fact remains that
08:32 the distrust in the Chief Minister, like I said before, and I continue to say it, it is ever
08:37 increasing and it is growing. Somewhere down the line, it will be a good idea for Centre to
08:44 intervene and Centre to take charge and Centre to ensure that the Chief Minister is replaced to
08:51 somebody who can understand the job, who can put an end to this clashes. That's number one. Like I
08:57 said in my earlier editorial, I think this would be the right time for the Supreme Court to interfere
09:03 Somoto, Supreme Court to take cognizance of the matter and Supreme Court to issue an independent
09:09 probe in what is happening in Manipur. There are a lot of questions that are not answered. There are
09:15 a lot of red flags that we still see. These questions need to be answered. India needs to
09:20 know what is happening. It is imperative. So, that's what I wanted to say. Till I see you next
09:27 time. That is, one more thing I want to talk about is, see, we have spoken to, you have spoken to
09:32 the representative of Kuki community, have spoken to ASP Brinda. Now, I am going to try and arrange
09:39 for an interview with the representative of Methi community so that we can understand this entire
09:44 issue from a holistic perspective. So, let us do that tomorrow and I will try and get
09:54 few learned professors from the Methi community to talk to them and understand from them as to
10:00 what is the perspective from Methi community on this entire clash.
10:05 So, till I see you next time, that is tomorrow at 10. Namaskar.
10:12 Thank you.
10:13 (Music)
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