Polling for the 2014 lok Sabha elections has gone underway! Tucked in one of the farthest corners of North-East in the hills of Tripura, nearly 11,390 voters have cast their votes for the lone Mizoram seat. In fact, they exercised their franchise even before the proper polling process in the country started.
The internally displaced Reangs, also known as Bru, were granted suffrage by the Election Commission with postal ballots. The hapless tribals, who fled their homes in Mizoram following ethnic violence, have been living in relief camps in Tripura for more than 16 years. The high pitched campaign did not touch them.
Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal, who reached one of the camps on Tuesday morning, rather excitedly confirmed, “They are already voting”. The postal ballot voting is being conducted in the relief camps from Tuesday through Thursday. The Commission has specially appointed Election Commission’s observer for the purpose. It remains to be seen as to how many Brus ultimately cast the votes.
The relationship between Reangs and majority Mizo has always been uneasy. When in 1990 the Reang Democratic Convention Party gained strength, there was opposition from dominant Mizos. By 1997, there was demand for an Autonomous District Council.
This made the Mizos raise voice. During this period the Bru National liberation Front, a militant body, was born and the matter came to a head when lalzawmliana, a wildlife game watcher of the Mizoram Government, was shot dead by allegedly by BNlF in October 1997. Following which a there was an exodus of Reangs to Tripura and by September 1998 the total number crossed 35,000.
Voting for the Mizoram seat is schedule for April 9 with three candidates in the fray. Ironically for the Brus all the candidates are Mizos: Congress nominee Cl Ruala and the United Democratic Front (UDF) opposition eight-party alliance contender Robert Romawia Royte, and Michael lalmanzuala of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The polling by the tribals, however, signified the beauty of the Indian election system. The Government has not solved their problems but the Commission saw to it that they were part of the electoral exercise. The Reangs/Brus, who have been recognised as a primitive tribe, constitute about 10 per cent of Mizoram’s population.
The Reangs have social customs akin to the Hindus, and majority Mizos, on the other hand, are Christians. The attitude of Mizos towards the Reangs whom they also call Tuikuks can be summed up in one Mizo sentence: Tuikuks Pathian siam theihloh (Even God cannot change them). In other words, the Mizos consider them as “incorrigible”. Ask any Mizo --- an official, politician or a journalist --- and there is hardly a positive word about them. linguistically and ethnically, the Reangs are akin to the Tibeto-Burmese tribes.
The Mizo have always argued that the Reangs had left their homes “on their own volition” and should not been be given the right to vote. In the first instance when the matter had gone up to the High Court in 1999 which favoured the Election Commission, the Mizos were furious and even formed ‘Save Mizoram Committee’. In fact, these tribals have voted in all Mizoram Assembly and lok Sabha elections since then.
Politically, with an eye to keeping on the right side of the majority Mizo population high on the agenda, the major political parties have avoided ties with ethnic minority. The conferring of voting rights to the Brus in fact heightens the unease during elections.
This time also Mizoram Chief Minister lal Thanhawala has spoken against the Election Commission’s move to allow the tribal refugees to exercise their franchise through postal ballot. “If the refugee voters wanted to vote, they should exercise their franchise inside Mizoram, not in the relief camps,” he was quoted to said. There were banners in Aziwal which condemned the Commission and protests led by the well knit Young Mizo Association (YMA) demanding the poll panel to revoke its decision.