Parties focus on peace, development

For political parties in Mizoram, that goes to polls on November 20, maintaining peace is the primary focus. Mizoram is the only northeastern state not wracked by militancy.

Wedged between Myanmar and Bangladesh, Mizoram is the only state in India's northeast not wracked with a violent insurgency. Maintaining peace in the predominantly Christian state has now become the focus of political parties contesting 40 seats in state legislative assembly elections on Thursday. Results are expected Dec. 2.

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"We want the prevailing peace to continue," Lianzuala, chief of the Young Mizo Association, said in a telephone interview from Aizawl, the state capital.

"So we have urged the voters to elect good and efficient candidates who can govern our state well," said Lianzuala, who like many people in the region uses only one name.

The YMA is among several civil groups, and the powerful Christian church, to have issued strict guidelines for candidates and political parties during the campaign.

The church has told candidates to limit their campaign expenditure to 300,000 rupees (US$65,500) and not to indulge in personal character assassinations.

"Not many are adhering to our call on the expense limit, but we are happy that almost all political parties have put up candidates who are faithful to the church and are morally upright people," Mangchhuana Sailo, chairman of the Mizoram Church Leaders Committee, said by telephone from Aizawl.

Like other states in India's northeast, where the majority of the population has a different ethnic, language, cultural and religious background than the bulk of India, Mizoram has also had a bout with violent insurgency.

From 1966-86 the Mizo National Front fought for an independent homeland.

In 1986, then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed a peace agreement with the MNF and the group joined mainstream politics. Guerrilla leader Laldenga became Mizoram's chief minister, the state's highest elected official, in elections following the peace deal.

New Delhi has signed peace agreements and cease-fires with other insurgent groups in India's northeast, but only in Mizoram has such a deal ended militancy. The other six states in India's hilly northeast have been battling violent insurgencies for decades by militants fighting for an independent homeland. The rebels accuse the federal government of exploiting the region's rich timber and mineral resources while neglecting the local economy. Thousands have died in the violence.

Laldenga died in 1989, leaving control of the party to his deputy, Zoramthanga, also a former guerrilla commander. Zoramthanga is the current chief minister and is seeking re-election. "I am now in the job of peace-making," said Zoramthanga, 53, in a recent interview. "I understand the language of the underground rebel groups. And now that I am in mainstream Indian politics, I understand the viewpoints of the government."

Zoramthanga has emerged as a key Indian government facilitator in New Delhi's negotiations with other rebel groups, particularly in Nagaland, India's only other Christian majority state. His main opposition will come from the Congress party, which is also in opposition at the national level after governing India for most of its first five decades.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the federal government, desperately wants to gain a foothold in the Mizoram legislature, where 85 percent of the population is Christian.

The BJP is contesting just eight of the 40 seats. Its candidates are either Christians or Buddhists from the Chakma tribe. Mizoram's 532,000 voters will choose from 192 in Thursday's election.

"We are not worried over who wins the polls," said Sailo of the church leaders committee. "We in the Mizo Church have urged the voters to elect God-fearing and morally clean candidates for our state's overall welfare."