Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Government of India, Nityanand Rai at Longwa village on July 4. (Photo Courtesy: X)
Dimapur, July 4 (MExN): The Longwa Village Council in Nagaland’s Mon district has appealed to Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai to reconsider the Centre’s decision to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and fence the Indo-Myanmar border. The council has highlighted that the move would divide a community that has lived as “one people” for centuries despite being split by the international boundary.
In a memorandum submitted on Saturday, the council said Longwa, home to about 6,000 people spread across both India and Myanmar, remains united “under one Anghship, one Church, and one traditional administration” even though the international boundary passes through the heart of the village.
The village has around 990 households in all, the council said, of which approximately 170, including the residence of the Chief Angh, a government primary school, a church, morungs, shops and other public properties, sit directly astride the border. Longwa also has eight jhum farmlands and two forest reserves, four of the farmlands and one reserve lying inside Myanmar.
The council traced the village’s history to the 16th century, when its people migrated from Pongchau in present-day Arunachal Pradesh. It said the international boundary was drawn through the settlement only during the joint India-Myanmar demarcation exercise of 1970-71, and “without the informed consent of the village inhabitants.”
“Had the people been fully aware that their ancestral village would be divided, they would not have accepted such an arrangement,” the council said in the memorandum.
Despite the political division, it said, residents on both sides have maintained “peaceful coexistence with their relatives and fellow villagers across the border without any significant border-related conflict,” preserving shared history, culture, traditions and family ties.
The Centre announced its decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR on January 20, 2024. The FMR had allowed border communities to cross up to a limited distance without visas, a facility the council said had been “vital in preserving the social, cultural, and familial ties of border communities.”
The council stressed that fencing and the FMR’s withdrawal would “severely affect the traditional way of life of the people of Longwa by separating families, restricting access to ancestral lands, and weakening centuries-old cultural and social bonds.”
It urged the Union minister to “kindly intervene and recommend reconsideration” of the decision insofar as it affects Longwa, seeking special consideration for the village’s “unique historical, cultural, and geographical circumstances” in any policy on the Indo-Myanmar border.
The memorandum was signed by Longwa Chief Angh Tonyei Phawang and council chairman Yanlang Konyak, who said they remained hopeful the minister’s office would “sympathetically consider” the appeal.
MoS Rai visits Mon district
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai on Saturday had visited the Tek Headquarters of 42 Assam Rifles in Mon district and the Company Operating Base of E/42 Assam Rifles along the India-Myanmar border, according to a post on his X account.
Rai held discussions with Brigadier Rajiv Singh and other officers and interacted with soldiers deployed at the border.
The minister also visited Longwa, a border village divided by the India-Myanmar boundary, where he called on Angh (chief) Tonyei, the traditional head of the village and met local residents.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described the Northeast as ‘Ashtalakshmi’ and placed it at the centre of India's development trajectory, Rai said.
Under the guidance of Home Minister Amit Shah, the Assam Rifles has grown stronger and is playing a key role in the security and welfare of the Northeast, he added.
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