Indian Home Minister Amir Shah has announced plans to erect barbed wire fencing on the country’s 1,643 kms long border with Myanmar, overriding objections of chief ministers of the tribal states of Nagaland and Mizoram.

Shah said his government also plans to put an end to the free movement regime (FMR) that exists on this border to allow local tribesmen on either side to move in and out up to a distance of 16 kms. That’s a British era vestige but one that was formalized six years ago through a bilateral agreement on border crossings.

While Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma, a former Indian Police Service officer turned regional politician, expressed shock at Shah’s announcement, Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton said the, “decision was not acceptable to the Nagas since many of them lived in both India and Myanmar.”

But Delhi’s move follows Manipur’s BJP Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s push for border fencing and cancellation of the FMR on grounds that it encouraged illegal migration and drugs-wrapons........

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