2009 was a year of promise and change in Mizoram

Aizawl, December 22 (PTI): The year gone by saw Congress winning crucial polls in Mizoram even as incidents of xenophobia, stalled Bru repatriation process, border dispute, gay issues and gun-running marked 2009 in the Christian- dominated Northeastern state. Riding on an anti-incumbency wave, Congress wrested 79 % of the seats in the village council elections from opposition Mizo National Front (MNF), besides capturing the lone Lok Sabha seat during the general elections held on April 16.
The party's nominee C L Ruala defeated former Lok Sabha MP H Lallungmuana, an independent candidate backed by MNF-Mizoram People's Conference combine by a margin of 1,05,146 votes. The Lok Sabha polls, however, witnessed the lowest turnout in the history of Mizoram at barely 50 %.
Nursing wounds of the defeat after a decade-old rule, MNF chief Zoramthanga refused to attribute Congress' victory to anti-incumbency but claimed that tampering of EVMs ruined his prospects and had threatened to boycott the Parliamentary polls if the EC did not revert to ballot papers. 2009 also witnessed hatred raising its ugly head among communities in the state.
Possible xenophobic movement against Chin refugees, triggered by an impugned report of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), was averted when the influential Young Mizo Association (YMA) intervened and convened a meeting of NGOs of Mizos and Chin groups to avoid communal clash. Communal outrage between the Mizos and the Brus, however, could not be prevented. The murder of a resident of Bungthuam village along Mizoram-Tripura border on November 13 not only led to communal confrontation, but also derailed the proposed repatriation of the Bru refugees from Tripura, set to begin from November 16. The Centre and the state government have been making efforts to repatriate thousands of Bru refugees from six relief camps in north Tripura district since 1997.
The first tripartite meeting after the new Congress government came to power was held on April 28 and officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, who participated in the meeting visited Bru relief camps in neighbouring Tripura. Representatives of Bru community, Mizoram government and the Centre decided that identification of Brus who are bona fide residents of the state should be taken up soon. The year also witnessed surrender of 64 members of Manipur-based Sinlung People's Liberation Army (SPLA) at Aizawl where the Hmar militants laid down arms. Border dispute with neighbouring Assam continued and erupted a number of times, the first and the most serious being in March when the state government virtually gave the firing order on the Mizoram-Cachar border after a Mizo farmer and his workers were allegedly assaulted by Assam forest department officials.
Also the gay issue, triggered by Delhi High Court's verdict to decriminalise homosexuality, shocked the powerful church and raged on till the end of the year, prompting the Synod, the highest decision making body of the Presbyterian Church of Mizoram to amend its canon on homosexuality. The church organised mass prayer on August 15 so that the centre would not scrap section 377 of the Indian Penal Code criminalising homosexuality and also submitted a memorandum to this effect to Union Law Minister Veerapa Moily. A long spell of drought due to late advent of pre-monsoon and monsoon caused not only crop failure during the year, but also forest fires which claimed four lives in mid-March.
Smoke from jhum fires caused immense pollution, resulting in perpetual flight cancellations during March. Another calamity hit the state when hailstorms destroyed around 200 houses and caused extensive damage to crops even as the drought condition prevailed in April.
The state also witnessed an increase in drug trafficki ng, especially heroin from across the porous 404-km-long international borer with Myanmar. Gun-running also continued from Myanmar and Bangladesh. The state police and paramilitary forces deployed along the 713-long-Mizoram-Myanmar-Bangladesh border seized huge cache of arms meant for northeast militants. In some good news for government employees, comprising around five % of the total population, the state government decided to implement the Sixth Pay Commission.