Free Movement Regime
Context:
- Recently, the Mizoram Assembly and the Nagaland Assembly adopted resolutions in order to oppose the Centre’s decision to fence the 1,643 km long porous India-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) agreement.
About FMR:
- It came into existence in 2018 as a part of India’s Act East policy for cultural, business, and terrestrial connectivity to Southeast Asia and beyond.
- The FMR allows cross-border movement between the two countries up to 16 km without a visa.
- The agreement was brought with the intent to facilitate local border trade, improve access to education and healthcare for border residents, and strengthen diplomatic ties.
- Under the FMR agreement, individuals were also allowed to stay up to two weeks in the neighbouring country by getting a one-year border pass.
- India and Myanmar share a 1,643-km-long porous border and the border is shared by multiple North Indian states which include Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh.
Fencing of the Indo – Myanmar border:
- Home Minister Amit Shah said on Jan 20, 2024 that the Centre has decided to fence the India-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR.
- The Centre decided to suspend the FMR in order to thwart illegal migration of people, the smuggling of drugs, arms and ammunition, and the cross-border movement of extremists.
- The states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur welcomed the Centre’s decision but Mizoram and Nagaland opposed it because of the ethnic composition along the border.
About the recent resolutions passed by Mizoram and Nagaland:
- It is a well-known fact that much of India’s present-day northeast was temporarily under Burmese occupation until the British pushed them out in the 1800s.
- The Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826 led to the current alignment of the boundary between India and Burma which was later renamed as Myanmar.
- The border divided people of the same ethnicity and culture especially the Nagas of Nagaland and Manipur and the Kuki-Chin-Mizo communities of Manipur and Mizoram without obtaining their consent.
- Asserting the right of the Mizo-Chin people to live together, Mizoram’s Home Minister moving the resolution said that a fence would divide their ancestral land and alienate people with blood ties.
- Nagaland’s Deputy Chief Minister noted that the Centre’s move would disrupt the age-old ties of the Naga people living on both sides of the international border.
Do the resolutions will have any impact?
- In March 2021, the Supreme Court confirmed that there was no harm in State Legislative Assemblies adopting resolutions against central laws like the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
- The apex court also said that such resolutions are merely “opinions” of the majority members of an Assembly and do not have the force of law.
- Some of the other northeast States have adopted several resolutions over the decades but these have had little impact apart from reflecting the sentiments of the people.
- Mizoram Chief Minister had said earlier that his government does not have the authority to stop the Centre from fencing the border and also scrapping the FMR.
- But security experts informed that hostile terrain, issues of logistics and connectivity, and affinities among the people will make it a difficult task to fence the border.
