The Government of India’s decision to scrap the free movement regime with Myanmar and fence the international border like it has done with Bangladesh can be seen as an effort to insulate India from internal developments in the neighbouring country but the government must see to it that the security-driven measure does not create heartburn among people on the Indian side of the border.
The free movement regime was introduced some 40 years ago to allow people who share familial and cultural relations but live on the other side of the border to travel 16 km into each other’s territory without a visa and stay up to two weeks. Modern nation-states have well-defined borders but human emotions have the power to melt them, though off the record. People-to-people contacts play a great role in the peaceful co-existence of neighbours, and India and Myanmar, too, have reaped the benefits of these.
However, developments over recent months have left India with little option but to guard its borders. The Myanmar junta has been waging a war with its own people and various militias have now the capacity to strike at will. It is an internal problem of the country and India should have nothing to do with it. The reports of 500-600 Myanmar soldiers entering Indian territory after their base was captured by a local militant group are concerning. That was a clear misuse of the facility India had given to the people of Myanmar.
While the claim of the ineffective and inefficient Manipur chief minister that Myanmar-based based militants are responsible for the continuing mayhem in his state may be dismissed outright, the government must see to it that the new measures have been communicated effectively to the Indian people who have been benefiting from the earlier arrangement. The helplessness reflected in the words of Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma, that his government has no authority to stop the fencing but he is still opposed to it, should be addressed by the Union government with all the seriousness it calls for.
