No violence, no hate speech: What Mizoram elections can teach the rest of India

Mizoram elections 2023: the rest of India can learn important lessons on how to conduct violence-free and hate-speech-free elections from Mizoram.

If I were to start the story by pointing out that in Mizoram, seizures in the run-up to the elections had nearly doubled, it would make for a grim reading and rightly so. As this Indian Express report shows, compared to the 2018 elections, when the authorities seized contraband worth Rs 19 crore, this year the number has risen to Rs 36 crore.

But as always, numbers without context are just that: numbers.

Although seizures totalling Rs 36 crore are surely a cause of concern for a state with less than 11 lakh people and under 9 lakh electors, a detailed look into the numbers reveals some interesting patterns.

Negligible Cash Seizures

Of the Rs 36 crore, only Rs 8,000 was in cash. This number must be seen in the context of the Northeast and elections. Earlier this year, when Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura went to elections, news of seizures was so regular that often the smaller seizures went unreported in the press. Nevertheless, seizures in the three states went up nearly 23 times compared to the 2018 elections, and the total seizures in the three states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura amounted to Rs 169.64 crore.

So when you compare a 23-fold increase to a 2-fold increase, Mizoram does not look so bad, right?

Further, the rather astonishingly low cash seizure of Rs 8,000 shows that the idea of politicians using cash to lure voters seems far-fetched, at least in Mizoram. Interestingly, in states like Nagaland and Meghalaya, cash seizures formed a higher percentage of the total seizures.

In Mizoram, drugs had the lion’s share in seizures, but for anyone following Mizoram closely, that hardly makes for a revelation. Of the Rs 36 crore, officials seized heroin worth Rs 19 crore, methamphetamine worth Rs 4.28 crore, and poppy seeds worth Rs 57 lakh, aside from Rs 8.84 crore in cigarettes and Rs 1.16 crore in liquor.

Drug seizures, unfortunately, hardly make it to the headlines even in local media because they are so frequent and more worryingly, so widespread. The state shares a long and complicated border with Myanmar, which falls in the “Golden Triangle” drug trade route that includes Thailand and Laos. The civil war in Myanmar, the unrest in Bangladesh, and the now-six-month-old violence in Manipur have all meant that drug seizures are up.

Journalists working in the Northeast are always on the lookout for controversies in the run-up to elections: one leader saying something controversial against someone else, against a community, or against an ideology, etc. To give an example: in the run-up to the Meghalaya elections, Union home minister Amit Shah dubbed the Conrad Sangma-led MDA government among the most corrupt governments in India.

Absence Of Violence, Hate Speech

While Mizoram also has its share of verbal political jousts, two things most encouraging about Mizoram’s run-up to the elections was the absolute lack of violence and hate speeches against any community, religion or even person.

Again, to give examples from the Northeast, there was political violence in Tripura and Manipur during elections earlier this year, while Nagaland witnessed both pre-poll and post-poll violence. With less than 24 hours to go in Mizoram, the state’s political leaders and residents have shunned violence completely. The rest of the Northeast would do well to take note.

Regarding hate speeches, it would have been easy to speak, say, against Meiteis in an attempt to use Manipur violence and garner votes, but no leader from any party worth noting did so. There was no hate speech against immigrants, no communal undertones, and even though Mizoram has several church dominions (Presbyterians, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecost), there was no  attempt to drag these differences in.

Now, sure, there was one incident, when an independent candidate in Mamit district allegedly gave a “hate speech” while speaking in favour of the minority Bru community against the majority Mizo community. But after an FIR, she apologised and the matter was solved amicably.

Most politicians refrained from organising massive rallies, although one could simply point to limited open spaces (at least in Aizawl) for such an occurrence. Barring Rahul Gandhi’s visit, which went viral in Mizoram, most political events were executed without any mishaps and problems for the common man.

Come December 3, the results from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and even Chhattisgarh are almost guaranteed to overshadow Mizoram’s election results. Yet, the rest of India can learn important lessons on how to conduct violence-free and hate-speech-free elections from Mizoram.

Amit Kumar is executive editor of Eastmojo.com, a Northeast-based news portal. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.