By Devabrata Dutta
GUWAHATI: As tension escalated at the Assam-Mizoram border area between the two states yesterday and took an ugly after five Assam Police personnel and a civilian lost lives, the only Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator in Mizoram, Buddha Dhan Chakma from Tuichawng LAC, has termed the incident "quite unfortunate" to happen within a country, adding that it is not a fight with China or Pakistan.
"I do not want to say who is right or wrong, though one party has to be, two federal states being in the same country are fighting which is quite unbecoming. Both the chief ministers should sit together in presence of the Union Home Minister and sort this out. If there is fire, then there has to be water as well," said Chakma speaking with InsideNE.
Chakma added further, "If this continues then it would be a great problem not only for Mizoram and Assam but India. It's not like we are fighting with China or Pakistan. It is within our country. I find it quite unfortunate as I myself am not in favour of violence. There are many border conflicts among the states within Northeast which need to resolve."
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Notably, the violence occurred less than a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah's 2-day visit to the region. Shah chaired a meeting in Shillong on July 24 with the chief ministers and chief secretaries of all eight northeastern states to discuss the border issues.
However, Mizoram MLA BD Chakma has informed that he has not received any information regarding the discussions held with Amit Shah.
Mizo National Front (MNF), which came into power in 2018 dethroning the state's longest serving Congress chief minister Lal Thanhawla, is also a part of BJP's regional forum North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).
BD Chakma, who was the only minority Chakma community minister in the Pu Hawla government, resigned from the party in August 2017 following denial of medical seats to four Chakma community meritious students by the Lal Thanhawla government and later joined BJP and became the first and only BJP candidate to win from the state of Mizoram.