New in Northeast | Hundreds of homes wait for loved ones to return from Ukraine

From families awaiting the return of their kin from Ukraine (many of whom are students), to Mizoram CM Zoramthanga in the line of fire and the president's visit, this past week in NE:

As the world got glued to their television sets last week to watch disturbing images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of homes in the Northeast panicked about fates of their loved ones stuck in the cities across the second largest country in Europe.

Records say nearly 18,000 Indian students are studying in Ukraine.  (AP)

As Ukrainians tried to protect themselves and their loved ones from missile attacks and airstrikes by advancing Russian forces, many in India’s Northeast were worried for the hundreds of young people from these states residing in Ukraine.

With national and local TV news channels raising concerns about these students and other Indians in Ukraine, it became clear that most of them were students of medicine pursuing their dreams of becoming doctors thousands of miles away from their homes.

Records say nearly 18,000 Indian students are studying in Ukraine. Several of them, unable to secure seats in government-run medical colleges in India, chose it as a low-cost option to the prohibitive fees charged by private medical colleges in India.

Reports say every year nearly 4,000 students with medical degrees from Ukraine take the foreign medical graduate examination (FMGE) required to get a license to practice medicine in India.

While the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi started efforts to get back these students and other Indians back home, state governments in the Northeast also started helplines to reach out to these students and their families to get an idea of exactly how many were there and coordinate with other agencies to ensure their return. On Tuesday, a student from Karnataka was killed in the Kharkiv region, which was heavily shelled by Russian forces. This has caused further worry among families back in India.

As per official figures, at least 144 students from Assam were studying in Ukraine. A dozen of them who were able to cross Ukraine’s borders into other countries were evacuated by Sunday and efforts are on to rescue the others. There are at least 50 students from Tripura, 10 from Meghalaya, 4 from Arunachal Pradesh, 2 from Nagaland and 14 from Manipur stuck in Ukraine.

The crisis also brought to focus how thousands of our children were going abroad to get their medical degrees. That trend might change in a few years, at least in Assam. The state now has 8 government medical colleges and 14 more are to be added in the next 3-4 years.

Zoramthanga in the line of fire

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga had to face some strong words from National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Opposition Congress last week.

Alleging the breakdown of law and order, the saffron party’s Mizoram unit on Friday demanded imposition of President’s rule in the state and submitted a memorandum on the same to Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati.

“The present regime run by MNF has a dubious distinction of being dubbed as the most corrupt government Mizoram has had so far. As a good number of ministers/MLAs are running proxy contract works system for various development works, no due process is followed in awarding contract works,” the memorandum said.

The request took many by surprise as Zoramthanga’s party, Mizo National Front (MNF), is also a member of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a regional platform of anti-Congress parties. Though BJP has a legislator in Mizoram, it is not part of the MNF government.

A day after the BJP memorandum, the Congress targeted Zoramthanga by calling him a “financial dictator” based on the contents of the state’s annual budget which the CM, who also handles the finance portfolio, presented earlier.

Congress alleged that Zoramthanga allocated ₹1,312 crores for major works to be undertaken by the finance department while not enough funds were allocated to other important departments such as education, agriculture, transport, tourism, planning and local administration.

“The state budget of presented by the CM isn’t one for the people but is finance minister-centric. The CM and the finance minister has turned himself into a financial dictator,” Congress spokesperson Lallianchhunga told journalists in Aizawl.

The President comes calling

Assam had the honour of hosting President Ram Nath Kovind for three days last week. The first citizen and his wife who arrived at Guwahati on February 25 to an elaborate welcome took part in many events during their stay.

They included a visit to the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati, inauguration of the year-long 400th birth anniversary celebrations of Ahom general Lachit Borphukan, convocation of Tezpur University and a visit to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR).

The Assam government spent crores to ensure the visit was a memorable one. But the visit had one sad note. On February 26, a 60-year-old daily wager was killed by a police escort car at Bokakhat minutes after the President’s convoy had passed through on its way to the national park.