Aizawl, Jul 6 : The Hmar Students’ Association (HSA) has demanded that the government of Mizoram stop “segregating” the Hmar people. In a memorandum submitted to the Mizoram government through Kolasib district deputy commissioner on Tuesday, the Hmar students’ body reacted to the direction of state government of Mizoram to take measures not to allot/issue house passes to the ‘Hmar refugees’; measures to segregate them from the local population and not to issue job cards under MGNREGS to the Hmars in Mizoram and measures be taken not to enroll the Hmar refugees in the ensuing special revision of electoral roll, 2012 in Mizoram. The memorandum stated that Mizoram chief secretary Vanhela Pachuau, along with officials from various departments, had a meeting on October 20, 2011 and derived a segregationist resolution against the Hmar tribe.
The meeting directed the home department to take necessary actions against the Hmar tribe on mentioned above points, the memorandum alleged.
” The order, by ostracizing the Hmar tribe, spelt out measures to deny the community of their constitutional and citizenship rights. It stands against the rightful interests of a community whose rights and entitlement cannot be suppressed by a bias and unjust order. The insensitive order is detrimental to the unity and integration of the Mizos; it stands opposed to the collective interests of the same and negates the Hmar tribe of their fundamental rights. The assented order is parallel to the Nuremberg Laws that was dictated by Adolf Hitler under the Nazis, ” said the memorandum.
The memorandum further stated that the Hmar peoples cannot be “refugees” in Mizoram; and shall never be. Taking strong exception to the government order, the students body alleged that it amounts to a pogrom and genocide of Hmar peoples’ rights.
” The Government of Mizoram is doggedly institutionalising injustice against the Hmar peoples with the uncalled-for order, ” said the memorandum signed by HSA general headquarters president Lalthlamuana Hmar.
The students’ body demanded the Mizoram home department to immediately abrogate and withdraw its ‘inhumane order’ and secure the rights and entitlement of the Hmar peoples of Mizoram according to the Constitution of India; stop targeting the Hmar peoples’ as outsiders or “refugees”; stop segregating the Hmar peoples’ and the Hmar peoples’ of Mizoram be granted the rights to house pass/site, job card under MGNREGS and register in the electoral roll/census.