Mizoram BJP welcomes refugees from Myanmar, says "ethnicity is above everything else"

AIZAWL: Even though the BJP-led Central Government has asked four northeastern states including Mizoram to take appropriate action to prevent a possible influx of people from coup-hit Myanmar into the country in a letter issued Home Affairs Ministry including the security forces to stay alert and take proper action, the state unit of the saffron is singing a different tune.

The Mizoram BJP President Vanlalhmuaka said that the Mizoram BJP stands with the "Mizo brothers and sisters who are seeking refuge in Mizoram because of the military junta in Myanmar."

The BJP president has said that "it (Myanmar) may be divided by us international border but we are strongly bound together by cultural, language and tradition with the Mizo clan from Myanmar."

"They are our brothers and sisters. We are the same ethnic group. Their suffering is our suffering. When they are knocking at our door, we must open our doors and let them in", he said, adding that although the Mizos should put their tradition, culture, and ethnicity above everything else.

He also urged the villagers in the bordering areas to allow the Myanmarese safe passage into Mizoram as "blood is thicker than water."

A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy, were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then vested power in a stratocracy.

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According to reports, more than 5,600 Myanmar nationals, including 18 lawmakers have so far sneaked into Mizoram since the military seized power in the neighbouring country in February, a police officer said on Friday.

Meanwhile, the chief minister of Myanmar's Chin state, Salai Lian Luai, is also among the Myanmarese nationals who took shelter in Mizoram after the coup.

More than 100 refugees have returned to their country, the police officer told PTI on condition of anonymity.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Thursday had said that in Myanmar, as of last week, approximately 60,700 women, children and men have been internally displaced and that an estimated 4,000-6,000 of them had made their way to India.

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