AIZAWL: A conglomerate of some influential NGOs in Mizoram has threatened not to allow the holding of November 28 Assembly elections in the state.
The “NGO Coordination Committee” on Tuesday staged a massive sit-in demonstration outside the state Assembly demanding that the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO), SB Shashank, leave the state.
Thousands of people took part in the protest which brought normal activities to a grinding halt in Aizawl.
A number of Mizo NGOs are at daggers’ drawn with the CEO as it was based on his complaint that the Election Commission of India (ECI) removed the state’s principal secretary (home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo. He is a local and Gujarat-cadre IAS officer.
“Until and unless he (Shashank) moves out, we will continue with the protests. If he doesn’t leave Mizoram, possibly, even the elections will not be held,” warned Vanlalruata, president of Young Mizo Association.
He accused the CEO of creating a rift in the Mizo society and acting arbitrarily.
“He is acting without consulting the state government. He is so arrogant that he doesn’t listen to anybody. When a good officer (read Chuaungo) says things should be like this or like that, he immediately lodges a complaint with the ECI and it takes action against the good officer. What he did was shocking and we never experienced anything like this before. It seems he is not ready to conduct free and fair election,” Vanlalruata said.
In his complaint to the ECI, Shashank alleged that Chuaungo had interfered in the electoral rolls revision of the displaced Brus and meddled in the “process of security management of conduct of election”. Earlier, there was an incident of theft and destruction of 5,400 roll revision forms from Mamit district where most Brus reside.
Brus are ethnic minorities. Some 40,000 of them had fled to neighbouring Tripura following clashes with the Mizos in 1990s. While a few thousand returned to Mizoram in due course, there are still over
32,000 of them lodged in six relief camps in Tripura.
The protesting NGOs accused the CEO of hurting the sentiments of the Mizos by his “pro-Bru” stance for conducting the elections. As they intensify their agitation, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla wrote to
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking Chuaungo’s reinstatement.
He wrote that the government fully supports “their (NGOs) long-standing demand that the Brus, now living in Tripura transit camps, should come and cast their votes inside Mizoram which every other Mizo from outside the state does at the time of elections”.
Meanwhile, the NGOs appealed to commercial vehicle owners to not rent out their vehicles for transporting central paramilitary forces from other states to Mizoram. The protestors on Monday sent back dozens of vehicles which were travelling to Assam to bring central paramilitary forces to Mizoram.