In their view, the state is being used as a "dumping ground", "a repository of expired things" and one being viewed by Delhi as the equivalent of Timbuktu, a view even among high-ranking Raj Bhavan officials who said the Centre is being "condescending". Source: AP photo
Summary
The younger breed of leaders is even less impressed by the quick succession of events that has cast Mizoram.
In their view, the state is being used as a “dumping ground”, “a repository of expired things” and one being viewed by Delhi as the equivalent of Timbuktu, a view even among high-ranking Raj Bhavan officials who said the Centre is being “condescending”.
“It looks like they have designated us a repository of expired things. I don’t want to take specific names but earlier, they have given us a governor because the party in power then was afraid he might be arrested by the anti-corruption watchdog.
And they have also given us governors who come to take a break because they are not in power in their respective states. In the most recent cases it is not about the person, who we are not familiar with yet, but the longstanding attitude,” said Fanai Malsawma, a former minister and the current vice-president of the Zoram Nationalist Party.
Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla was meanwhile diplomatic, saying, “Earlier the Home Minister would consult the state Chief Ministers. They would say, “We are proposing so-and-so to be Governor, what is your view?” But they anyway made the appointments whether we accept or approve of it.
So it’s the Centre’s prerogative so I don’t have any comment for any particular case. It is all good if they send someone efficient and good. It’s dangerous if they send someone bad and corrupt. I don’t think it should be a matter for our pride to be hurt.”
Lal Thanhawla’s chief rival in state politics, former CM and Mizo National Front president Zoramthanga, was almost as resigned to the state’s apparent helplessness, saying, “They are making us Tawngkawlawng (a remote hamlet in the southern border with Myanmar that is the Mizo equivalent of Timbuktu). But what can we do? Of course we would want a good person to be sent to us but there is nothing we can do about that.”
But the CM’s main opponent in the state legislature is evidently unhappy.
“It’s a punishment posting, yes, as the news channels are saying. It is something to be very angry about that Mizoram is being used as a dumping ground. Of course it is a tactic that they transfer someone who has refused to resign in the hope they will do so, but then it’s something to be angry about for us,” said Vanlalzawma, former MP and Leader of Opposition in the Mizoram state assembly.
“Not only governors, for all bureaucrats from Delhi it’s a hard posting. It’s the way the rest of the country sees us. It’s a fact that they don’t give us the best people,” echoed Lalhmangaiha, a retired bureaucrat and current president of the Mizoram People’s Conference.
The younger breed of leaders is even less impressed by the quick succession of events that has cast Mizoram in the national stage recently.
“It has always been so but this shows once again the Central Government’s discriminatory view and indifference of the North-East states in general and Mizoram in particular,” said Lalhmachhuana, president of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl or Mizo Students’ Association, the largest and most active student body which also acts as a springboard for future political leaders.
“We are without a Governor, and the questions that now arise are, ‘Can they not post a full-fledged Governor who is physically fit and who would wholeheartedly come here and work for the state? Do we not deserve that? And can they not post someone here other a person they are just kicking around like a football, someone they just want to punish?” he asked.
Zodinpuia, president of the Mizo Students’ Union, said, “This raises the pertinent question ‘Does the entre really look down upon us this much?’ They recently sent two people who are old and physically inactive and now they are sending us an 82-year-old. They are using us as a punishment posting for such people who may not even be able to spend the remainder of their term here. It is wrong for us to be used as a punishment posting.”