Some 37,000 Brus of Mizoram had fled to Tripura in 1997 in the wake of ethnic riots. What sparked off the animosity was the killing of a Mizo forest guard allegedly by Bru militants. The Brus demand for an autonomous council had also not gone down well with the Mizos viewing it as separatism.
In 1998, Dhananjay had cast vote through postal ballot from a relief camp in Tripura. So did thousands other Bru refugees languishing there. Now he is in Mizoram along with 1,034 Bru families, repatriated by Mizoram government since 2010. Dhananjay and many other Brus had last cast vote from Mizoram in 1993.
“I am very excited about casting my vote on my home soil after such a long time,” Dhananjay told dna. “I pray that everything passes off peacefully,” Dhananjay, a native of Rengdil village in Mamit district, added.
Suryamani Reang, Dhananjay’s friend and a former Bru militant, is equally excited. “Let bygones be bygones. We all must vote for a peaceful future,” he said.
Mizoram has 11,301 Bru voters spread across nine assembly segments in Kolasib, Mamit and Lunglei districts. Those repatriated are now settled in 35 villages. The repatriation process began under a central government package that entailed Rs85,000 as compensation, Rs5,500 for transportation and free ration for a year per family. While a section of those still lodged in the relief camps are excited about their possible return to their native villages, another is not yet convinced about their safety. In 2008, ruling Congress had won all three Bru-dominated Hachhek, Mamit and Dampa seats. Meanwhile, the Mizo Students’ Union (MSU) has threatened to “go to any length” to prevent Bru refugees in Tripura from exercising franchise through postal ballots. It is peeved with a section of the refugees’ refusal to return to Mizoram. The MSU insists that the refugees come to Mizoram and cast their votes.
The students’ body has warned that it will resort to any means to prevent election officials from going to the refugee camps.