New Delhi: Nearly a month after Union home minister Amit Shah’s announcement on the government scrapping the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with Myanmar, Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh told the state assembly that “it has not been scrapped yet.”
On February 8, Shah said that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had written to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to end the bilateral understanding with the neighbouring country.
However, the MEA has thus far not issued any formal statement on the MHA’s request.
On March 4, the last day of the Winter Session of the Manipur assembly, Biren Singh said the FMR has not been scrapped yet. “Nonetheless, the state government has been suspending the FMR for every six months with due consent of the Government of India,” he said.
In reply to a question by MLA and state Congress chief Meghachandra, the chief minister said that the Manipur state administration had suspended the FMR with Myanmar since 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the arrangement has continued.
“The latest notification for suspension of FMR was issued on February 16 this year. In the meantime, the Government of India is expected to issue an order whereby FMR would be scrapped totally,” the chief minister told the House.
On referring to some recent media reports about the arrest of “illegal immigrants from Myanmar” in Manipur, in spite of the suspension of the FMR, the chief minister said that citizens of the two countries “can move across the border if they are permitted by authorities of both the countries even though FMR has been suspended.”
While there has been a longstanding demand from Manipur’s Meitei community to fence the international border the northeastern state shares with Myanmar, citing the issue of ‘illegal immigrants’ entering the Indian state through it, their last ten-month-long ethnic strife with the state’s Kuki community has also seen a vociferous demand to not only fence the border but also scrap the FMR understanding too, as per which people residing on both sides can cross the international border up to 16 kilometres without passport.
Several Meitei civil society groups have been alleging that “illegal immigrants” have intruded into the border areas populated by the Kuki community, who share kinship with those across the international boundary, thereby posing a threat to the population of the majority community.
Even as the Narendra Modi government’s decision to scrap India’s FMR with Myanmar has been welcomed by the majority Meitei population of Manipur, it has been vehemently opposed not only by the Kukis of the state but also by the Mizos and Nagas across Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.
Both the Mizoram and Nagaland assemblies have passed resolutions to oppose the Centre’s decision, citing kinship with the people across the international border.
Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma has recently met Shah in New Delhi on the matter. The Naga Students’ Federation has written to the United Nations to intervene on the subject.
Of the total 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar border, 398 km runs along Manipur, 215 km along Nagaland, 520 km along Arunachal Pradesh and 520 km along Mizoram.
