Border Disputes Need Centre’s Healing Touch Not Temporary Measures

Two days before the recent flare-up on the Assam-Mizoram border, Union home minister Amit Shah was in the Northeast where he had a closed-door meeting with the chief ministers and senior officials of all the eight states of the region. Among other things, he was apprised of the simmering tension and sporadic clashes between the police forces of Assam and Mizoram over alleged encroachment into forest land. This was nothing new as border tension between the two states keeps erupting intermittently, like it does on Assam’s borders with other states, including Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. The CMs were told by the home minister to ‘defuse’ the border tensions until a permanent solution could be found, says an official present at the July 24 meeting.

“This is what we have been doing for so many years—defusing the situation and maintaining status quo,” says a senior ­official in the home ministry. “If a ­problem arises, the tack has been to talk to the chief secretaries and DGPs of the states concerned and cool down tempers to avert a blow-up. Until the next time.”

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If border tensions are a routine affair, then why did the situation blow up this time? “It is evident that there has been a communication failure somewhere. And an intelligence failure,” says an officer of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), who has served in the region for a long time. “Neither the political leaders nor the ­police officers saw this coming. They were foolhardy to dismiss the clashes as routine. The Centre needs to be ­proactive to sense the trouble brewing before it becomes a flashpoint.”

Former Meghalaya governor R.S. Mooshahary, who was also the first IPS officer from Assam’s Bodo community, believes the situation should not have been allowed to escalate. “I think ­neither the state governments nor the Centre were anticipating this level of outburst. It has come as a surprise to both,” he says. According to him, Assam’s problems with Mizoram have not been as big as those with Nagaland. He recalls the 1985 battle between Assam and Nagaland at Merapani village in which over 40 people, most of them ­policemen, were killed, while hundreds were wounded and rendered homeless. “After so many failed attempts, now a hurried agreement has been signed ­between the two states in the middle of tensions ­between Assam and Mizoram. Agreements are signed and then ­forgotten. They don’t mean anything unl­ess there is a political will to enforce them,” Mooshahary says. It’s the Centre’s responsibility to enforce the agreements, and more. “The Centre is like the umpire…the big brother who has to step in to disengage two fighting states,” he adds.

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According to the former IPS officer, owing to the prolonged tension and clashes at the border, the Union home ministry should have anticipated the trouble and deployed a neutral central force like the CRPF or the ITBP earlier. “When two armed police forces are ­facing each other with passions running high, even a small spark can turn into a conflagration,” he says. Considering that there is a BJP government in both the states, and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the situation should not have escalated so much.

A senior officer who retired from the country’s security establishment agrees. “The Centre has a determining role in such conflicts. What happened is most ­undesirable. A high-level team from the home minstry should have been there before it escalated. The forces did not gather at the border ­overnight. It is as much the fault of the Centre as of the states,” he says.

The border disputes have been allowed to fester for too long. A long-term ­permanent solution should have been worked out after the all-out war in Merapani, if not earlier. Kishore Seram, a veteran journalist from the Northeast, says the boundary issues should have been taken up more seriously. “Whenever there is a flare-up, it is ­tackled on an ad hoc basis. There is no follow-up to work out a more lasting solution,” he says. According to him, the Centre could have set an example by helping resolve the Mizoram-Assam issue. It would have been a precedent for handling other such border disputes in the Northeast.

Seram says a dedicated and empowered committee should be set up to ­res­olve the long-standing border ­disputes. “I am convinced it can be done; not just the Mizo-Assam border but all other disputes can be settled with some give and take. If India and Bangladesh can exch­ange enclaves and resolve boundary ­issues, why can’t it be done within Indian states?” he asks.

Though the situation is unique in the Northeast, there are interstate border disputes elsewhere in India too. Punjab was divided when Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were hived off, but there have only been some niggling ­issues and no major flare-ups. Down south, Kasaragod, situated in the ­northern end of Kerala, is a Kannada-dominated district, but there is no real dispute, says former home secretary G.K. Pillai. “Malayalam is not forced down their throat. Similarly, Devikulam is a Tamil-dominated district, but there is no major fight,” he adds.

Disputes in the Northeast are more complicated. At the time of independence in 1947, the region comprised Assam and the princely states of Manipur and Tripura. Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram—were carved out of Assam. Pillai, who also served as joint secretary (Northeast) in the home ministry, explains that while there is a constitutional boundary drawn by the Survey of India, there are also the ­erstwhile ­district boundaries. The hill tribes of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, for example, have their traditional boundaries based on the land occ­upied by their forefathers, marked by hill tops and other terrain. “The problem arises when constitutional boundaries clash with the ­traditional boundaries,” he says. “No one is willing to compromise. There is an uneasy truce. The Centre must engage with the CMs, urging them to talk and compromise in the spirit of give and take.”

The fact that there is a new chief ­minister in Assam is also being seen as a reason why things got shaken up more than usual at the border. Personalities do make a difference. “When Sarba­nanda Sonowal was chief minister, he did not stir things up,” says Seram. “The new CM is different and it is not just about Hindutva politics. Assam is ­important for the Centre too. Most MPs from the northeastern states belong to Assam, which accounts for 14 Lok Sabha seats. Other states in the region put together have less seats. Assam is the hub for the entire region.” So, it is not just about physical boundaries, but also about ­political calculations.

While there is a demand for a new boundary commission from some ­quarters, Sarma has gone on record to say that the issue can be permanently ­res­olved only by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a home ministry spokesperson says space technology will be ­dep­loyed to demarcate borders in the Northeast. The North Eastern Space Applications Centre—a joint initiative of the department of space and the North Eastern Council—has been ­engaged to do satellite mapping of ­border areas and “end the disputes once and for all”. 

(This appeared in the print edition as "Band-Aid On Old, Deep Cuts")