The sudden termination of the Free Movement Regime (FMR), which allowed people on both sides of the India-Myanmar border to travel up to 16 km into each other’s territory without passport and visa, will have repercussions that no one is talking about. Moreover, fencing the hitherto unfenced border will not be a cakewalk for the Centre after the assertive and tough stand of not one but two state governments – Mizoram and Nagaland – against ending the FMR and sealing off the frontier.
Mizoram’s Chief Minister, Lalduhoma, and Nagaland’s Deputy Chief Minister, Y Patton, are openly saying that scrapping the FMR and erecting a border fence is simply “unacceptable”. Lalduhoma, in particular, has already articulated his objections directly before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Interestingly, Lalduhoma is a former Indian Police Service officer and Jaishankar, an ex-Indian Foreign Service officer, is his 1977 batch-mate; they did the foundation course together in Mussoorie.
Two weeks ago, in a major escalation, the legislative assemblies of the two northeastern states adopted hard-hitting resolutions — cutting across party lines — against the suspension of the FMR and the decision to fence the border, bringing their differences with the Centre to a boil and setting the stage for a head-on confrontation in the coming days. Notably, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh also share a boundary with Myanmar but are in sync with the central government.