Rising Peoples Party (RPP) has described as “alarming and a wake-up call for Nagas” the Centre’s decision to end the Free Movement Regime (FMR) the India-Myanmar border. FMR, which allows people residing close to the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km into each other’s territory without visa, was implemented in 2018 as part of India’s Act East policy.
The 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar border, which passes through Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, currently has FMR. In a press release, RPP stated that apart from the proposed visa travel, the Centre was planning to construct high security fencing along the border.
Stating that Nagas were already the most geographically divided people, the RPP said that the move would only heighten the divide amongst the Naga people. It, therefore, asserted that any policy that aimed to further divide Nagas should be opposed “tooth and nail.”
RPP urged the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to uphold the age-old mechanism that allowed people across borders “to converge and live as honourable peoples, whether Nagas or Zo-Kuki.”
Furter, the party asked the NDPP-BJP coalition government to “strongly oppose” the move. “If necessary, all the 60 MLAs should meet either the Prime Minister or his Home Minister and convey the strong feelings of the Naga people that under no circumstances the construction of the fencing will be allowed,” RPP stated.
It recalled that in 2017 the Burmese junta proposed to fence the international border near Pangsha under Noklak district but was subsequently dropped due to strong and spirited opposition by the people.
The party reminded that various forms of FMR had been in place since the creation of the Nagaland state in 1963 respecting the needs and the sentiments of the Naga people living on both sides of the border, which it said needed to be respected and upheld.
RPP also slammed the Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh, saying “his communal policies” cannot be the excuse for the central government to scrap the FMR.