Politics / Mizoram

Aizawl, Feb. 24: Human Rights and Law, a local NGO, today said Mizoram?s rights record was nothing to be proud of. Addressing a news conference here today, the organisation?s president, Vanramchhuangi, said they have received several requests from outside to do something to improve the record as the state ranks third in rights violation in the country.

?Our friends from other groups have asked that we do something about what they see as gross human rights violations in the state as we have been ranked third next only to Gujarat and Kashmir by a television channel. They want academic...

Aizawl, Feb. 24: The Mizoram People?s Conference (MPC) took another step towards disintegration with one former MLA and three party headquarters secretaries submitting their resignations today.

The troubled regional party of Mizoram has already been facing much difficulty. One sitting MLA F. Lalthanzuala and another ex-MLA H. Laltanpuia left the party in December after it suffered major setbacks in the November 2003 Assembly polls.

However, the trouble for the MPC seems to start only as tomorrow?s party general conference is going to witness a tug of war between the sitting president...

Aizawl, Feb. 20: Congress stalwart and former Union minister C. Silvera quit the party yesterday. In a short letter to PCC chief Lalthanhawla, Silvera said, ?I hereby inform you that I have resigned from my primary Congress membership as of today, February 19, 2003.?

A copy of the resignation letter has been sent to AICC president Sonia Gandhi and chief of the Tuikhuahtlang unit to which Silvera belonged.

Silvera said he had no immediate plans to join another political party. ?I am retiring,? he said. However, sources said bad blood between Silvera and Lalthanhawla might have prompted the...

Aizawl, Feb. 18: The rebel factions in the Mizoram Congress and the Mizoram People?s Conference (MPC) have both demanded a change in leadership. Sources in the Mizoram PCC said at a meeting held here last week, the rebel leaders asked state Congress president Lalthanhawla to resign.

Members of the MPC political affairs committee also asked their party president, Lalhmingthanga, to step down from the post. However, the two presidents have refused to tender their resignation, saying that they would do so only if the party cadre wanted them to.

Both Lalthanhawla and Lalhmingthanga were away when...

Aizawl, Feb. 12: The 1st Assam Rifles (Lushai Hills) battalion has found a champion in the state branch of the Public Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), in face of the home ministry threat to pull it out of Mizoram.

In a letter to deputy chief minister L.K. Advani, who holds the home portfolio, the PUCL outlined the battalion?s history and said it was the true symbol of nationhood to the Mizo people.

Explaining the role of Laldenga, the late founder of the Mizo National Front (MNF), in the steps taken towards the removal of the 1st Assam Rifles from the state, the PUCL said Laldenga had taken...

Aizawl, Feb. 11: The rebel faction of the Mizoram People?s Conference (MPC) yesterday convened a meeting at a hotel here to discuss ways to overthrow the MPC president.

Sources said the faction, led by MPC vice-president Zairemthanga, formulated a plan to overthrow present president Lalhmingthanga during the party elections on February 25 and 26.

The faction also decided to put up former MLA Col. Lalchungnunga for the post of president, Kenneth Chawngliana as vice-president and Lalthanzauva Pudaite, retired IFS officer, as treasurer.

The sources said the rebel faction had, for long, wanted to...

Aizawl, Feb. 10: The Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) today justified its attack on the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) office here yesterday by accusing the university?s director, S. K. Ghosh, of communal bias.

An MZP release said an employee of the institution needs to work without break for 200 days at the same post to be regularised. But Ghosh, it alleged, had transferred Mizo workers in 70 to 80 days, resulting in no permanent Mizo employee at the Ignou.

The MZP also accused the Ignou regional director of siphoning funds meant for bonus of the staff and deducting employees? salary...

AIZAWL, Feb 2 ? The 10th round of talks between the Mizoram Government and the Tripura-based underground Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) might run into rough weather even as both the sides expressed optimism that they would settle the Bru problem this time around.

An official, who is involved in the negotiations, told PTI on condition of anonymity that the State Government was having serious doubts that the agreement to be made with the BNLF would end the Bru insurgency against Mizoram.

?We doubt that the BNLF would be able to rein in Bru underground splinter groups like tha Bru National...

Guwahati, Jan. 23: Retired Karnataka cadre Mizo IPS H.T. Sangliana has joined the BJP and is likely to contest the ensuing Lok Sabha polls from Karnataka. A senior Assam BJP leader said here today that Sangliana joined the party in New Delhi yesterday in the presence of party president Venkaiah Naidu.

He said though Sangliana would work for the party in Karnataka, his decision to join the BJP would inspire several others to join the party in his home state of Mizoram.

A 1967 batch IPS officer, Sangliana headed the high-profile Special Task Force to hunt down forest brigand Veerappan at his...

Silchar, Jan. 14: The militant Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) has indicated it is no longer averse to accepting the Mizoram government?s condition that all members of the outfit must lay down weapons before a peace accord is signed. If the BNLF says yes, it will be the second such concession by the Bru group in the past two years.

The militants first gave up the demand for an autonomous district council to administer the Bru-dominated areas of northwest Mizoram. They instead settled for a development council based on the model of limited autonomy, which was granted to the Hmar tribe in...