‘You are dialling a wrong number,’ Assam CM Himanta destroys Mizo student leader who threatened secession against India

On Thursday, July 28, the President of the Mizo Students Union (MSU) – J. Lalmuanzuala wrote an open letter to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in which he threatened the Union of India with dire consequences, and said the Mizo people – including the organisation he represents will not shy away from taking up arms against India if pushed too far. He rather openly flashed the “insurgency” card, and attempted to intimidate the chief minister of Assam. It appears as though the Mizo Students Union’s president made a Twitter profile specifically for the purpose of threatening the state of Assam and the Indian Union.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, however, is not a man who will take threats from just about any Tom, Dick and Harry. In fact, threats from any quarter are not received well by Sarma. So, when Lalmuanzuala posted his organisation’s seditious yet hilarious “open letter” on Twitter, Himanta Biswa Sarma quoted the particular tweet and said, “Brother, you are dialling a wrong number.” With his wit and humour, Himanta Biswa Sarma grounded a man full of himself and his inconsequential abilities to take up arms against the Indian state.

Lalmuanzuala in his open letter to Sarma following the Assam-Mizoram Border clash blamed the state chief minister for hampering the cordial relation between the people of the states for vested political interests. He wrote, “You have initiated violence against civilians in Mizoram knowing fully well that your actions can hamper the cordial relationship we have with the Indian Union for your selfish motives to take away the land that our ancestors had fought for through blood and sweat.”

The “student group” wrote, “Don’t make mistake of taking Mizos for granted. If you do not want peace under the umbrella of the Indian Union, know that Mizoram has had a history of insurgency and taking arms in the past. We shall not shy away from you if you push us.”

Read more: The history of the Assam-Mizoram conflict – How India’s colonial past continues to haunt North-East India

So far, 7 Assam Police personnel have lost their lives at the violent clashes which took place between Assam and Mizoram on Monday. Following the violent clashes between the police forces of Assam and Mizoram, Assam’s chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday blamed “non-state actors” in Mizoram for being behind the violence. CM Himanta has suggested that the new cattle law in the state and the crackdown on narcotics smuggling by the BJP-led government of Assam could have triggered “non-state actors” in Mizoram to incite violence against the Assam Police personnel.

Historically, student unions, which are extremist and borderline-militant organisations have continuously aimed at stoking violence and chaos in the region, and the recent threat by the Mizo Students Union to pick up arms against India is yet another reminder of the immediate necessity to crush these “pressure groups”. Until and unless the Indian state gets rid of pressure groups from the Northeast, the region will always remain at the cusp of violence, with sporadic incidents being reported regularly.