Mizoram: He Once Discarded This Seat, Now His Fate Depends On it

By Adam Halliday


Former CM Zoramthanga (in cap) in Khuangthing village.

Khawbung, Nov 21 : Wearing a white baseball cap and walking on Khuangthing village's deserted main street with two aides, Zoramthanga is candid about his chances. "I am taking a risk," says the former Mizoram chief minister. "We now only have one-third of the strength we had in this seat," he adds. "But I was born and grew up in Samthang village nearby, so I chose this seat to contest from."

From being a chief minister for two terms, Zoramthanga has gone on to become a candidate with simultaneous losses in two contiguous seats of Champhai town. He has now returned to East Tuipui, a constituency earlier known as Khawbung. It is a seat he had won in 1998, one of two victories, but he had given it up to represent the other seat, Champhai, a more urban one. In 2003, he contested and won two urban seats in Champhai, before the double blow came in 2008. It was allegations of corruption that sealed his government's fate; Zoramthanga is today one of only three candidates statewide facing a criminal case.

President of the Mizo National Front, he has sought a resurgence by teaming up with two other parties under the banner Mizoram Democratic Alliance. Kicking off a joint campaign in Aizawl on November 1, Zoramthanga predicted a repeat of the landslide victory of 1998, when his MNF had been in alliance with the Mizoram People's Conference, now an MDA constituent.

Zoramthanga says he has been forced to contest just one seat this time, unlike the other two potential chief ministers, incumbent Lal Thanhawla (Congress) and Lalduhoma (Zoram Nationalist Party). Having had to choose one over the other in the past, he admits contesting two might have complicated his chances.

The fact that he once surrendered this seat still rings in the region. One of his competitors, W Chhuanawma of the ZNP, uses it as an handle to beat his heavyweight opponent with.

"Does anyone continue to love a wife he has divorced?" Chhuanawma thundered to loud applause at a joint platform organised at Khawbung this week by Mizoram People's Forum, a powerful election watchdog.

Zoramthanga, seated with Congress candidate T Sangkunga, showed no emotion. His speech half-an-hour later, however, appeared apologetic. He admitted that he had left the seat because of political exigencies, described how party leaders often contest from two seats, and said he is now placing his fate and faith in the people of East Tuipui.

He used to be known as an orator who never read from a prepared script, a leader whose way with words made him the MNF's diplomatic face during the years when the party was a separatist outfit fighting a guerrilla war with Indian armed forces. Now, more than his speech, it was a scuffle in one corner that held the attention of a large chunk of the audience.

Sangkunga of the Congress once led Mizoram's most powerful mass-based voluntary organisation, Young Mizo Association, and has a reputation as a shrewd tactician who rose from clerk to secretary of government departments before he retired. He, too, attacked Zoramthanga, sealing his speech with:

"It will be painful for me to see this constituency represented by an opposition MLA again."

If little else, electoral history is on Zoramthanga's side. The party, or its leaders who contested as independents, have won here five of six times, and the seat was most recently held by the MNF's B Lalthlengliana from 2008 until his death this year.

Even veterans of other parties are wary about writing Zoramthanga off. "The MNF doesn't lose this seat easily," says a veteran who himself has contested from here. "Five out of six is a good number. And neither the ZNP nor the Congress have ever won it. History matters."

Mary Kom Sizzles On Ramp in Delhi

The North East Festival 2013 came to an end with a fashion show, where many designers from the north-east - like Dhiraj Deka and Garima Saikia Garg from Assam, Yena Ngoba from Arunachal Pradesh, Joy Shing from Manipur, Anu Marbaniang from Meghalaya, Charlie from Mizoram and Anga and Aji from Nagaland - showcased their creations.

The showstopper for the evening was Olympic bronze medal winner in boxing, MC Mary Kom, who walked the ramp for Yena. Mary told us later, "I was proud to wear my traditional dress on the ramp. I was only worried about the extra kilos that I have put on after pregnancy and was wondering whether I would be able to fit in it."

Shyamkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the festival, said, "Our attempt was to connect to the people of various north-east regions and we hope to make it an annual event." The show also included some musical performances by Guru Rewben Mashangva, Zubin Garg and Kalpana Patowari.

Also present was actor Adil Hussain, the brand ambassador of the festival. The showstopper for the evening was Olympic bronze medal winner in boxing, MC Mary Kom, who walked the ramp for Yena.

In Mizoram, A Party That Hunted 40 Candidates Settles for 1

By Adam Halliday

Aizawl, Nov 21 : There is a new party in Mizoram politics — in a manner of speaking. The Jai Maha Bharath Party (National Level), a party headquartered in New Delhi's Connaught Place, has set out to contest the assembly elections. It started off scouting for candidates for the 40 seats, and has finally found one.

It began with an advertisement in the front page of a local daily, Vanglaini, asking anyone interested to contest in its name. Using a clay pot as its election symbol and declaring it intends to field candidates in all 40 seats, the party's advertisement ironically appeared the same day Vanglaini carried on its front page a report about how all the state's major parties had released their list of candidates. The advertisment, in fact, appeared right next to the report.

Anantha Vishwadava, also known as Prabhu, the founder national president, is somewhat disappointed. Camping in Aizawl where he was looking for candidates, he admitted that he was not satisfied with most of the 40-odd applicants who had approached him over the previous few days. This was last week, when the party was yet to find a candidate it was willing to field.

"We have a policy that we will fund any of our candidates' campaigns through advertisements in the newspapers and on TV once they file nominations," Prabhu said. "But here everyone who has applied first want the money in hand."

The one candidate the party eventually accepted is F Remkhuma, who will contest from Hrangturzo, one of the two seats the chief minister is contesting. Last week, he spoke along with other candidates at a function organised by the Mizo People's Forum. He said his party is against corruption, promised to use his funds wisely if he wins, and wound up his speech using two of the 15 minutes allotted to him.

Party chief Prabhu describes the JMBP: "Our party wants to make India great, and we are totally secular." He says they have faced elections in several states already, in Bihar in 2010, then in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and fielded candidates in New Delhi's municipal elections. He says the party will also contest in all northeastern states as and when elections take place.

India losing the battle against TB?

Two people die every three minutes in a country that accounts for 26 percent of cases globally.

By Bijoyeta Das

Rafael Hasta, 58, has yet to benefit from the world's largest free TB care programme [Bijoyeta Das/Al Jazeera]

The days Rafael Hasta coughs up blood, his son Samuel gives him mashed papaya with boiled rice and red tea. Hasta refuses to eat anything else.

Diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) three years ago, Hasta - from Assam in India's northeast - has seen a doctor only four times. Samuel, 28, hired a wooden cart and took him to a public hospital in the town of Kokrajhar.
"I lose a day's work, wait for two hours, and the doctor meets the patient for only five minutes and never explains anything," he says. The doctor's visit was free, but X-ray and medicines cost $15 each time."

Rummaging under the bed, he pulls out four crumpled prescriptions and two fading X-rays reports. The $3 he earns as a day labourer feeds six people. Medicines for his father are "simply not possible."

Scared that the disease could spread, he built a shed with bamboo, tin and tarpaulin for his father. "I want to take care of him. I just don't know how," he says, pressing his father's scrawny hands. 

Many like Hasta are yet to benefit from the world's largest free healthcare programme for TB that India runs. India has the highest TB burden, accounting for 26 percent of cases globally.
It is the country's most fatal infectious disease and a rise in drug resistance has prompted many to ask if India is floundering to control TB.

India's TB burden
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2013 Global tuberculosis report, 8.6 million people developed TB and 1.3 million died from the disease in 2012. The rate of new cases has been declining at 2 percent per year for a decade.

Earning $3 per day, Samuel says its "simply impossible" to buy medicines for his father [Bijoyeta Das /Al Jazeera]

The scale of India's TB control measures is laudable but population, grinding poverty and a doddering healthcare system cause the problem to dwarf all efforts, according to experts. Prevalence has reduced from 465 to 230 per 100,000 population and mortality from 38 to 22.
Yet, the scale of the scourge remains scary. Every three minutes, two people die of TB in India, and one out of every four TB patients in the world is an Indian.
"You are running very fast but you seem to be standing in the same place because so many are getting infected," says Virendar Chauhan, director of International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
For two decades, Indian government has been providing the WHO-recommended DOTS: Directly Observed Treatment courses under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). It currently reaches 1.5 million cases in the public sector.
But about half of those affected go to the private sector, which is not involved in TB control. "Government and private sector efforts should integrate. There should be a push-and-pull mechanism," adds Chauhan.

It is a cruel irony that India is a pharmacy to the world. It produces many of the TB drugs that people in other countries depend upon ... The government has not been upfront in recognising the shortage and ensuring availability. - Mike Fricke, Activists of Treatment Action Group

Routine DOTS saves lives but is not very effective in curbing transmission, says Madhukar Pai, associate director at McGill International TB Centre. "By the time patients end up in the DOTS system, they have likely infected many others."
Poor living conditions, malnutrition, overcrowding, smoking, indoor air pollution, HIV infection, and diabetes increase the risk of TB in India.
Pai says India's scale-up of new technologies has been disappointing. Countries such as South Africa and Brazil are actively investing in new tests such as GeneXpert to improve case detection and multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB) diagnosis, but India is yet to "take such bold steps."
"Even easily available tools like mobile phones and ICT are yet to be harnessed for notification and treatment adherence monitoring," he says.
According to Soumya Swaminathan, director of National Institute for research in Tuberculosis, poor access and ignorance about the national programme, unfriendly health services, and the attitude towards the marginalised are roadblocks in extending universal healthcare.
"Our studies have shown that there is a huge out-of-pocket expenditure by the time patients get diagnosed and treated for TB, and that stigma compounds the problem," she says.
The WHO says there is a funding shortfall of $2 billion a year for a full response to the global TB epidemic. But Indian health officials say India's TB control is a success and there are no funding gaps.
"India's TB spending has not slowed down and India's budget on TB control has increased by 300 percent in 12th Five Year Plan as compared to the 11th," says Niraj Kulshrestha, a senior official of the Central TB division at the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. Spending on research increased by 80 percent since last year, he adds.
Fund shortage
International funds contribute 57 percent of India's total TB control budget. However, the RNTCP budget is only 2 percent of the total health sector budget. The ambitious National Strategic Plan that aims to treat 90 percent of TB cases by 2017 will cost $1.05 billion. But RNTCP has been allocated only $731 million.
Resistance to drugs is also compounding the problem. About half of the 450,000 MDR-TB patients are in India, China and Russia. Reports of recent drug stock-outs, particularly second-line MDR-TB, led activists of Treatment Action Group (TAG) to take over the stage with calls of "Shame India" and "the TB genocide must stop" at the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris.

"It is a cruel irony that India is a pharmacy to the world. It produces many of the TB drugs that people in other countries depend upon," says Mike Fricke of TAG. "The government has not been upfront in recognising the shortage and ensuring availability."
Kulshrestha says there is no increase in MDR-TB and absolute numbers are high, proportionate to the population. "More cases are being reported because of diagnostic facilities made available by the government," he adds.
According to Leena Menghaney of Medicines Sans Frontiere,"Antibiotics are largely misused in the private sector, which is contributing to the rise of drug resistance in TB and needs to be regulated."
Often poverty makes people susceptible to TB, and TB worsens poverty, but it now affects all classes of people in India.
“If India and China are able to reduce the TB burden, it would mean progress for global TB control,” she adds.

TB-Infographic [Bijoyeta Das /Al Jazeera]

This story has been written under the aegis of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union)'s Media Fellowships for Reporting on TB.

India Gets On The Highway to Growth in Southeast Asia

By Nayanima Basu

With the implementation of the India-Asean comprehensive economic partnership, the target for two-way trade has been set at $100 billion by 2015

As India readies to sign the free trade agreement on services and investment with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), taking bilateral trade relations to the next level of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, the focus is on the laying out of a massive road connectivity plan to tie the region together to boost economic objectives.

To start with, India has proposed extending the trilateral highway project connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand to neighbouring Cambodia and Vietnam. The idea is to set up special economic zones along this highway and provide seamless connectivity through these countries by 2016, by when the projects are expected to become operational. Right now, work is on to repair and strengthen 71 bridges that link this stretch.

To ensure greater success of this highway project, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh proposed an Asean-India Transit Transport Agreement (AITTA) at the India-Asean Summit in Brunei Darussalam last month. Once the agreement comes into force -likely by 2015- vehicles from association countries will be able to cross international borders without much documentation.

Total bilateral trade between Asean and India reached $75.6 billion in 2012, surpassing the target of $70 billion. Now, with the implementation of the India-Asean comprehensive economic partnership, the target for two-way trade has been set at $100 billion by 2015, for which an integrated transport network would be the key.

At present, the market is fragmented and the patchy road network is a stumbling block for free flow of goods and services. This, along with administrative and technical barriers, increases costs and leads to transportation delays, says a study by New Delhi-based think tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries on Asean-India connectivity.

While road links are being developed, the proposed AITTA will make crossing the border easier. "AITTA will allow vehicles to move seamlessly across international borders or regional and international trade transportation purposes. AITTA should be in position before the trilateral highway is operationalised in 2016. Potentially, it can be a game changer which will allow us to reap the full benefit of India-Asean free trade agreement, regional comprehensive economic partnership and enhanced connectivity," says Ashok Kantha, secretary (East), ministry of external affairs.

The master plan on Asean road connectivity was adopted at the India-Asean Summit in 2010. The benefits from the highways, which are scheduled to be completed by 2016, are manifold. They would improve connectivity, bring India closer to Asean, reduce trade costs, help exploit the country's comparative advantage in certain products, expand markets, as well as reduce poverty and improve the quality of life for the people in the region. A smooth road network would also provide substantial benefits to other countries, particularly to landlocked and island nations by giving them low-cost access to a wider market outside, the report said.

India already has a goods agreement in place. It came into force in August 2011 and provides tariff-free access to a range of products, including textiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, engineering goods, processed food and auto parts. The likely addition of services and investments to this list of free-trade items in the not too distant future would open up new opportunities for Indian IT and healthcare professionals, designers and researchers.

In addition, India is also contemplating expansion of rail network into Myanmar. The rail head terminates at Jiribam in Manipur. A project to connect Jiribam to the capital Imphal is under way and is slated to be completed by 2017, while proposals on connecting Moreh (Imphal) to Tamu-Kalay (Myanmar) is being considered by the external affairs ministry.

At the same time, work is also on for developing soft infrastructure such as trade facilitation centres and telecommunication, necessary for any economy to function and thrive. Boosting maritime connectivity is on the agenda as well. India has proposed the establishment of a Maritime Transport Working Group between India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to examine the feasibility of shorter shipping routes. This idea was initially mooted by Thailand which wants a more direct sea transport route to India via the Dawei port in Myanmar, which is a deep sea port. Right now ships have to be routed via Singapore to reach India.

"It is important that we identify economic activities that can be pegged to these corridors, which could attract private sectors from both Asean and India, including from India's Northeast," says a foreign ministry official.

Another project that India has shown interest in is the Mekong-India Economic Corridor (an offshoot of the trilateral highway) to link Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam with India. The corridor- which might be funded by Asian Development Bank -will extend from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Dawei in Myanmar via Bangkok (Thailand) and Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and then on to Chennai in India.

Mizoram: Rivals Come Face To Face On One Platform To Seek Cotes

By Arijit Sen

Aizawl, Nov 20 : Mizoram will vote on November 25 to elect a new Assembly and politicians are showing the way when it comes to campaigning. In this Northeastern state candidates from different political parties come together to face questions on joint platforms.

Like students getting ready for an exam, candidates from three different political parties competing for the Aizawl North Constituency must answer four questions on an open platform before a select audience in order to win votes.

"This is an excellent arrangement because you can express yourself to the people. If you call public meeting here in Mizoram only your party people come, rest do not come. Therefore it is a very good arrangement," says Congress MLA Lalsawta.

In Mizoram it is the church-sponsored Mizoram People's Forum, a self-appointed watchdog of elections that organises meetings.

The entire session is recorded and will be broadcast on local television stations for free.

"The main purpose is to have a peaceful election. Local forums are organising this so that candidates can explain their manifesto. The local forum is established by the Presbyterian Church. It is very effective and because of this it happens," says Rammuana of the Mizoram People's Forum.

Forget the Election Commission, in Mizoram it is the church-sponsored Mizoram People's Forum, a self-appointed watchdog of elections that organises meetings in which they get candidates from all political parties and they remind them what is okay to do and what is not when it comes to elections in the state.

Formed in 2006, they even have a 20 point MoU on dos and don'ts signed by political parties. But the question is, are they stepping into the Election Commission's shoes?

"Not at all, not at all! We are supporting, we are supporting, we don't go against the Election Commission. We are strengthening their hands," says Mizoram People's Forum activist F Lallura.

As 7,00,000 voters get ready to elect a new 40-member Assembly on November 25, when it comes to campaigns of the future, Mizoram is showing the rest of India the way.

Source: CNN-IBN

Mizoram CM: I Wiped Tilak Off, Can They Wipe Blood Off Their Hands

By Adam Halliday
The CM with a tilak on his forehead

Serchhip, Nov 20 : Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has hit back at the opposition, which has been attacking him for sporting a tilak and charging him with forsaking his religion. "I wiped off the tilak on my forehead after the function, but how are those who took up arms and caused deaths of many innocents to wipe the blood off their hands?" Lal Thanhawla said Tuesday, in an obvious reference to the Mizo National Front, whose members fought a 20-year guerrilla war against the Indian armed forces for a separate Mizo country.

Speaking at a joint platform organised by the Mizoram People's Forum at his bastion Serchhip, Lal Thanhawla said the opposition has resorted to such tactics "because they cannot find any evidence of corruption against me and this is all they have to stand on". Rooting out corruption was the Congress's main plank in 2008, when it won by a landslide with 32 of 40 seats.

At the platform, the five-time chief minister came under attack from other candidates, particularly the Mizoram Democratic Alliance's C Lalramzauva and independent Lalawmpuia Renthlei. The ooposition has been charging the Congress with playing what it calls "Indianisation politics", tapping into the largely Christian Mizos' religious sentiment as well as widespread fears of being swamped by larger ethnic populations.

To this charge, Lal Thanhawla said, "God has sought us Mizos out with his spirit, and why should we, who believe this, fear being swamped? Will God not protect us, those he has found? He will not allow us to be swamped."

In a veiled attack on the CM, who has been targeted for sporting the tilak and taking part in pujas several times on visits outside, the MDA's Lalramzauva said in his speech at the joint platform, "Spiritual people have said these elections are not going to be fought between parties but between forces of good and evil, between believers and nonbelievers."

Renthlei, who is curiously contesting as an independent from the two seats that Lal Thanhawla is contesting (Serchhip and Hrangturzo), said in a speech filled with biblical allusions, "When the giant Goliath threatened the Israelites and the small boy David killed him, how did David do it? Where did he attack the giant?" To which someone from the crowd shouted, "On his forehead!" Renthlei continued, "It is written, 'You cannot drink from the same cup as that of God and of demons'. I ask the MDA and the Zoram Nationalist Party to join me in this fight."

As the audience cheered and hooted, Renthlei took his seat. Immediately after, Lal Thanhawla stood up without waiting for a formal invite from the platform's chairman, as is the norm, and hit back at his opponents.

In his capacity as CM, he said, he spends time with and visits people of all kinds of cultures and religions. "Sometimes I am greeted by half-naked people, sometimes by people wearing exquisite clothes, sometimes by people who bang gongs and sometimes by those who fire guns into the air," he said.

"I ask you, there are those who have paraded idols with 10 hands to protest my sporting a tilak. Are they not trying to use the power of these idols themselves?" he said, referring to an MNF-organised rally in Aizawl earlier this year to protest the CM's sporting of a tilak.

World's Largest Family Prepares To Vote in Mizoram Polls

By Manogya Loiwal

Serchhip (Mizoram), Nov 20 :
Ziona, the head of family, has 38 wives, 32 sons, 18 daughters, 22 grandsons, 26 granddaughters and seven great grand children and all live under one roof. The largest family in the world is the star attraction in Mizoram and the mega family will be voting for a new government in the north-eastern state on November 25.

The family has 162 members out of which 98 are eligible to vote and they are attracting political parties.

Ziona, the head of family, has 38 wives, 32 sons, 18 daughters, 22 grandsons, 26 granddaughters and seven great grand children and all live under one roof.

With one the biggest houses in Serchhip district and Tuikum Assembly constituency located in the mountainous state sandwiched between Bangladesh and Myanmar, the family enjoys enormous respect and is the centre of attraction in the region.

Zaupuia, the grandson of Ziona, is proud to be a member of the most sought-after family in the state.

"My house's name is Chuenta Roon, which means house of the new generation. Our family consists of 162 members; my grandfather has 38 wives, 32 sons and 18 daughters," he said.

"There are a lot of grandchildren and I'm the grandson of Ziona. During elections, politicians receive 98 votes from our family. I'm yet to decide whom to vote for."

Managing a huge family like this is not easy. The family consumes 30 kilograms of rice for one meal of the day.

Most of the family members are carpenters and the rest take care of pig and poultry farms.

The family members share a cordial relationship and work is properly divided.

If seven wives cook, then the rest take care of the clothes and children. The seniors in the family are given adequate rest according to the age.

"We tend to face management problems since we're a large family. But if my baby is crying, others are always there to lend a helping hand," says Ramnandagi, the daughter of Ziona.

Congress, the leading political party in Mizoram, knows the importance of the highest number of voters in the village and hence is trying to woo them again.

Zasanga, the executive member of Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee, is confident of getting the support of the family.

"They are our people, our citizens. So naturally they should come and cast their vote. The government has done good things for them. Like other citizens, they are being well-looked after and well-fed. Therefore we are looking forward to their support."

I have visited the huge family. They're a happy lot and nearly constitute one village. They are a religious group of people. Everything is controlled by the MPF i.e. Mizo People Forum."

Of the 40 Assembly seats, the Congress won 32 seats, Mizo National Front (MNF) three, and Maraland Democratic Front one in the last Assembly elections in December 2008.

The United Democratic Alliance's constituents - Mizoram People's Conference and Zoram Nationalist Party - got two seats each.

The Mizoram National Front, which ruled the state for 10 years till 2008, is the principal opposition party.

But the control is not with parties. It is with the churches. Almost 90 per cent of 10 lakh people in Mizoram are literate. Christianity being the main religion of the state, it is church bodies that are the deciding factors in the elections.

Mizo Peoples Forum, with more around six lakh followers, will be the deciding factor in this election.

"There are more than 50 churches and a lot of NGOs. The objective of the MPF is to ensure clean, fair and free election in Mizoram. In order to achieve this, we are working together with the Election Commission and the parties. We have signed an agreement with Mizo parties to work together to achieve our target," says Lairamliana Pachuau, president of Mizo Peoples Forum.

"We also wish to reduce the amount of money spent on election campaigns and therefore we are coordinating with the Election Commission. We also disseminated the election code of conduct. Apart from this, we organise joint platforms for candidates bringing in all parties."

The poll panel has fixed Rs.8 lakh as the maximum limit for election expenses to be incurred by individual candidates during polls and it will be monitored closely.

However, issues for the Assembly polls in Mizoram are no different from the rest of the country.

The locals however have concerns, says Ronalso Maiya.

"As localities, we look forward for a government that will be for the people and not for itself. We are waiting for someone to help eradicate corruption that has become synonymous with most political parties and help the poorest of the poor in the villages. We are hoping for a clean and a fair election this time.

The MPF was organised by our elders and therefore they play an important role in providing guidance to political parties in the right way and prevent them from misusing their powers," Maiya said.

The Congress, losing ground in the mainland, is however hoping to register a win in the polls and no wonder they are targeting the families that may make a difference.