Mizo Zirlai Pawl activities seen as a 'new danger for Mizoram'

While New Delhi continues its protracted discussions with Laldenga and the Mizo underground for a permanent peace, there are sure signs that the small northeastern state may return once again to the dark days of murder, armed encounters with the army and long periods of curfew. With the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), a students' organisation of long standing having turned itself into a militant secessionist group that works as a front organisation of the Mizo National Front (MNF), the authorities fear that if the peace talks fail, it will have a serious urban insurrectionary movement on its hands.

This will only strengthen the activities of the underground MNF in the rural areas. Last fortnight a worried Chief Minister, Brigadier T. Sailo, told India Today at Aizawl that he viewed the MZP activities as a "new danger for Mizoram".

The elders in the state who had experienced the 10-year horror from the early '60s - when many innocents had been killed in the army's anti-MNF operations and when to be a Mizo meant attracting the suspicion of the outside world - and who had welcomed the peace efforts initiated last year, are particularly bitter.

Many others, including people in the security forces and in the administration of the Union territory, feel that if the days of uncertainty return. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi will have only herself to blame. Laldenga has lost no opportunity to tell people in Mizoram that Mrs Gandhi looks on him as the only leader of the Mizos.

His claim gains strength from the way in which the Union Government seems to allow him to dilly-dally over the talks and the princely arrangements that are made for him when he visits the underground council for consultations.

Laldenga Legend: The new mood of hostility in Mizoram, in fact, surfaced with the beginning of Laldenga's talks with the Central Government which have been interpreted by his followers in Mizoram as a climb-down by the Centre. As MZP followers raise the slogan that an independent Mizoram is not far away, others keep repeating, "It is Indira Gandhi who is responsible for reviving the Laldenga Legend."

Even Chief Minister Sailo seemed to agree with this line of thought. Sailo, justifiably angry at having been kept totally in the dark about the progress of the talks reportedly at the insistence of Laldenga, commented bitterly: "Why does the prime-minister give such quarter to a man who has no other option but to agree to whatever terms of settlement she decrees?"

While Sailo, an arch enemy of Laldenga, feels he should not be taken seriously any more as "the comfortable living in Delhi has made him totally unfit to be an underground leader once more", others in the administration seem to think that by prolonging the talks and indulging Laldenga in various ways Mrs Gandhi is actually giving him a long rope to hang himself with; the argument is that after some time even his supporters, living in great hardship in the Arakan Hills, will cease to have any faith in him and then the Government will strike.

However, right now laldenga seems to have a slight edge over the Central Government in the battle of wits. Most of the younger generation of Mizos are solidly with him and the MNF if, which was rid of the stigma of being an unlawful body on July 7, 1981 by the Government, is again recruiting people from the towns and villages.

There are reports with the Mizoram Government which say that when he met his council members in the Arakan Hills last fortnight, he told them that while he had told Delhi he was prepared to find a solution to the Mizo problem within the framework of the Indian Constitution, he was, in fact, still set on the course to achieve the "big thing", namely: an "independent Mizoram". However, he added that they should "be patient, as these things take time".

It is perhaps an indication of Laldenga's personality and charisma that he still continues to be the unquestioned leader of the Mizo underground, and now also of the MZP even though he has long ceased to share their sufferings.