By IANS,
Guwahati : The Burma Centre Delhi (BCD) is planning to launch a forum involving all members of parliament (MPs) from the northeast region to raise the issue of Myanmar in a better way in parliament.
Founder member of the BCD, Alana Golmei said this here Friday and added that the move was initiated to increase more people-to-people coordination between the northeastern region of India and Myanmar.
The BCD is a non-profit organisation which was formed with the aim to work for the restoration of peace, justice, democracy and human rights in Myanmar.
Four states in India’s northeastern region — Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram — share over 1,600 km of international boundary with Myanmar. At least 80,000 Myanmarese refugees live in India, mainly in the three states of Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland.
“We already have a forum called Indian Peoples’ Forum for Democracy in Myanmar. However, we need to raise the issue of Myanmar in parliament so that we can exert more pressure on the Indian government for adopting a more strong policy on Myanmar,” said Golmei.
“Myanmar is important for India’s northeastern states as anything that happens in the country has immediate implications in these northeastern states through the border,” Golmei said.
She added that they have stepped up the move to form the forum considering the byelections in Myanmar scheduled for April 8. At least 17 political parties, including the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, are taking part in the April 1 elections in Myanmar.
“The forum will be made on the lines of the Indian MPs’ forum for Bangladesh, which is doing great work on various bilateral issues between the two countries. The proposed MPs’ forum will create a congenial atmosphere for talks between the two countries through people-to-people interactions and even problems like economic influx to the prosperous region can be taken up,” she added.
“We have initiated the forum and are already in touch with most of the MPs from the northeastern states. We hope to take up the issue of Myanmar and democracy there in the Indian Parliament in a better way soon,” Golmei added.