DISCORD OVER ACCORD

Peace Accord signed

Aizawl, June 29: The Mizo Peace Accord has failed to bring peace between two major rival political forces in Mizoram – the ruling Congress and the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF).
Ironically, both the parties played equally
important role in the making of the historic accord, dubbed as the “most enduring peace accord” in India. Both the parties usually observed the Remna Ni (Peace Accord Day) June 30 separately, an influential apolitical organisation like the Young Mizo Association or the Church step in. The last time when the rival political parties shared a common platform on Remni Ni was when the central YMA host a common function to celebrate the day. This time, the state’s apex students’ body Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) plays a role.
Chief minister Lal Thanhawla will be the chief guest at Remna Ni function organised by the MZP at
Pachhunga University College Multicomplex Hall which will also be attended by MNF
President Zoramthanga and other political leaders.

The MZP plans to felicitate Lal Thanhawla,
who was the chief minister at the time of the signing of the peace accord and
surrendered chief Minister seat for the
erstwhile underground MNF leader Laldenga. The latter will also be posthumously felicitated on the occasion.
The MNF will not hold separate function in Aizawl but there will be functions in all the district headquarters and major towns to observe the day, like it has done in the past.
MNF senior vice president Tawnluia will grace a function at Thenzawl while MNF MLA Vanlalzawma will do the same in Lunglei. Other party leaders will do the same in other major towns.
June 30 is a state holiday in Mizoram. However, this year the day falls on a Saturday, which is a holiday.  June 30, thirty-two years ago, was a day of euphoria with the return of the much-needed peace in the land of the Mizos. On that day, the four-page Mizoram peace accord was signed in New Delhi under former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The then Union home secretary R.D. Pradhan, Mizo
National Front (MNF) chief Laldenga, who is no more, and the former chief secretary of the Mizoram government, Lalkhama, put their initials on the document.
On February 28, 1966, Laldenga, a former clerk in the district council, and his followers heralded an insurgency that for long 20 years kept the Mizos under a wrap of fear and anxiety.
There were many twists and ups and downs in the secretive progressions of  the peace talks between the
Church and intelligence emissaries on the one hand and Laldenga on the other.
In 1971, a Church elder, Zairema, pioneered a process to contact Laldenga, then living in exile with his followers in East Pakistan, with a olive branch and arrange a meeting between the Centre and the MNF for ushering in peace.
 Next, the intelligence agencies, particularly the RAW and the Intelligence Bureau, came to the fore in a mission to make Laldenga aware that his rebellion would end in a futile exercise.
A senior RAW official, S Hasanwalia, met Laldenga in Zurich in 1975, to sell him the idea of peace talks.
From then on, the peace bandwagon began to move on along a distinctly neat course, that culminated in the historic peace accord in 1986.
A Presbyterian Church leader said, “The peace accord of 1986 and the subsequent urge to keep up the spirit of the peace in Mizoram are now the two important mosaics for the lasting peace in this tiny, serene and green state.”

- Newslink