Ghost of partition past lingers as Delhi mulls fencing British era India-Myanmar border
India and Myanmar remain fenced, allowing resident of either side to cross the border and travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa and stay up to two weeks. This was called the Free Movement Regime (FMR). The Indian Government has now planned to stop the FMR, and fence the complete border with Myanmar.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government plans to fence the border along Myanmar to “stop the influx of illegal immigrants, drugs and gold smuggling". However, a British era boundary drawing nations threatens the trauma of partition, that India suffered in 1947. Will the fencing of the borderland inflict partition trauma, it did for generations in the colonial era partition of Bengal and Punjab? Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had in September 2023 said that he had appealed to the Centre to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the Indo-Myanmar border.
The Manipur CM cited influx of “illegal immigrants" and cross-border drug trafficking. The residents in the Meitei dominated regions of Manipur have also demanded the fencing along Myanmar border and a National Register of Citizens (NRC). Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma has been vocal against fencing the border.
Soon after it was reported that the Centre plans to scrap the FMR, he met PM Modi and Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar in Delhi, after which he told the media that the Mizos consider the Indo-Myanmar border “an imposed boundary" and that fencing it is “unacceptable" to the Mizo people. The Nagaland government has refrained from commenting on the matter so far. However, Deputy CM Y Patton met Lalduhoma in Aizawl, following which the Mizoram government stated that Patton said fencing the border would be “unacceptable for
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