The The People’s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of acting on illegal grounds in a meeting with the press on Wednesday.
Alleging that the declaration of Bru refugees as Mizoram citizens by ECI is illegal, PRISM president, Vanlalruata said, “In 2004, the Election Commission of India declared the Bru refugees who live in Tripura as ordinary residents of Mizoram. Our party opined that it is illegal because the Election Commission has no power to declare any person to be ordinary residents.”
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“If they want to declare the Brus as ordinary citizens of Mizoram, the Central Government will declare it, and after which the Election Commission can give voting rights. Though ECI is a central agency it is not central government. Such declaration can only be made by the Home Ministry,” he added.
The party also demanded for the deletion of Bru voters residing in Tripura from the Mizoram electoral roll.
Vanlalruata said, “We demand for the deletion of all the Bru refugees from the Mizoram list as they have migrated to Tripura. Any citizen of India can migrate to any state within the country. These Brus have also migrated from Mizoram to Tripura.”
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“Now they live in Tripura so they will have to vote in Tripura, not in Mizoram,” he added.
The party had recently come under the radar of the Chief Electoral Office and was served a show cause notice on the party’s stance to introduce the Right to Secession Bill if their MP candidate, TBC Lalvenchhunga is elected to power.
The party was directed to clarify their position on the issue within 24 hours.
However, the PRISM president, Vanlalruata had responded saying, “I think CAB is against our Indian integrity so we oppose this bill. We always said that if the Central Government is trying to re-introduce this bill in the Lok Sabha and if we have a member we will make Right to Secession Bill and introduce it to oppose CAB. That is our clear stand.”