Simmering northeast centre must constitute a new boundary commission to resolve the region’s internal border disputes

Simmering northeast centre must constitute a new boundary commission to resolve the region’s internal border disputes

The extraordinary and frightening spectacle of police forces of two states of the Union of India training guns on each other, causing deaths and injuries – as happened between Assam and Mizoram – should tell the Centre that business-as-usual approaches to long-simmering inter-state conflicts won’t do. Some elements of this dispute seem as ugly as one between two aggressive countries. Assam says Mizoram police fired on Assam cops with light machine guns. Mizoram counters Assam police overran a police duty post in its territory. Origins of this particular fight seem to lie in claims over roads and forest land. But the bigger picture is even more worrying – this is just the latest in a series of inter-state border issues between Assam and its neighbouring Northeast states. Given how sensitive NE is, India simply can’t afford these flashpoints getting worse. To put it simply – China will be watching these fights with relish.

At the heart of these disputes is not just ‘discrepancies’ between constitutionally-set boundaries and those perceived to be historical boundaries. Economic competition for land, engendered by lack of non-farm jobs across NE, is the primary cause. Mizoram CM Zoramthanga unwittingly acknowledged this when he recently suggested that large tracts deemed to be within Assam’s constitutional boundary have been used by Mizos for a century, while Dispur’s claims over these areas result from population pressure due to influx of migrants into Assam’s Barak Valley. Many NE-focussed central schemes are running. The principal criterion for their success should be their ability to attract job-creating investment.

But, and this shows how serious intra-NE state border conflicts can become, the Centre also must offer a political solution. Asking states to solve this between themselves is an idea whose time has gone. The Constitution’s mechanisms for addressing inter-state disputes include activating an Inter-State Council (Article 263) or asking the Supreme Court to adjudicate (Article 131). Commissions headed by formidable ex-judges like MC Mahajan and YV Chandrachud haven’t found acceptance in the past. In 2006, SC ordered a three-member Local Commission headed by a retired SC judge to demarcate all the boundaries between Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal, and then attempted mediation between 2010 and 2013 – all to no avail.

But such attempts remain the best bet. A timebound court-monitored commission involving local communities in joint demarcation exercises should be announced. Politically, with many NDA governments in NE, this exercise will at least not fall at the first hurdle.