Cutting off Mizoram

Come February 10, and Mizoram will be disconnected from Guwahati – the main hub of air connectivity in the Northeastern region. While Air India — which claims to be “the premier flight carrier of India is one of the most extensive flight service providers in India” – had wiped out the Aizwal-Guwahati-Aizwal sector from its mind quite sometime ago, the last flight connecting to the two state capitals of the Northeast – run by Jet Airways – will be on Sunday next, after which the people of Mizoram should not think of flying to Guwahati, and vice versa. The February issue of ‘Jet Wings’, the inflight magazine of Jet Airways, does not show Aizawl on its map which has the caption ‘Discover India with Jet Airways.’ Yet, the airlines’ Chairman Naresh Goyal shamelessly claims that Jet had become ‘the preferred full-service airline for the Indian traveller’ that is ‘committed to taking the Indian flag to the furthest point on the map and connecting our country’ !

Now onwards, anyone having to fly from Mizoram to Guwahati will have to take the trouble of first flying out from Aizawl to Kolkata, and then catch another flight to Guwahati, all because the BJP government at the Centre has vowed to improve connectivity in the Northeastern region! Those who do not get an Aizawl-Kolkata-Guwahati ticket for the same day, but have to reach Guwahati the same day, will have to fly Aizawl-Imphal-Kolkata-Guwahati! All by paying through one’s nose!

This is also happening at a time when the BJP government at the Centre has been chanting the mantra called UDAAN – which is an acronym of the English transliteration of the Hindi phrase ‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik’ – the BJP government’s flagship regional air connectivity scheme. While the UDAAN scheme was launched in 2017, and the Central government intended to put the smaller cities of the country on India’s air connectivity map by way of fiscal incentives, infrastructure support, procedural simplifications and monetary subsidies, withdrawal of the Aizwal-Guwahati and Guwahati-Aizwal flights have only proved how insincere and unfair this government has been to the Northeast. Can the civil aviation minister, or the minister for Development of North-eastern Region explain how they propose to fulfill their promise of ‘Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik’, which, when translated into English by and large means ‘Let the common man fly’? Or, is it so that the ‘Desh ka aam aadmi’ that the Government at the Centre is talking about does not include the people of Mizoram when it comes to their requirement of flying to Guwahati?

People of Mizoram do not require flying to Guwahati just for the fun of it. Guwahati anyway is not a place of tourist interest of pilgrimage for the Mizo people. Nor do people from Guwahati need to fly to Aizawl, or for that matter to Mizoram for fun, or for sight-seeing or for any kind of pilgrimage. While a large number of Mizos need to fly to Guwahati for the purpose of medical examination and treatment, a sizeable number of Mizo students also pursue various academic courses in different educational institutions in Guwahati. Likewise, there are quite a number of students from Assam studying in different educational institutions in Aizawl. Why are they being compelled to take a round-about route through Kolkata or Imphal? Is Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga aware of this withdrawal of direct flight between Aizawl and Guwahati? Is Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal aware of it? Did Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga mention this issue when he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital last week? Will his Assam counterpart Sonowal pick up the courage of mentioning this during his welcome speech in the public functions that Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to attend in Assam on Saturday?