AIZAWL:
Leaders of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) led by chief minister Zoramthanga, paid floral tribute to the party founding president Laldenga on his 32nd death anniversary, on July 7.
“Let us rededicate ourselves to the principles of the Mizo National Front founded by Laldenga sixty years ago,” Zoramthanga said.
Laldenga’s widow, Lalbiakdiki, who also spoke on the occasion, expressed gratefulness that her husband is still remembered by his former comrades.
Born in 1927, Laldenga joined the British Indian Army in 1944. He later worked as clerk under the Assam government.
Disappointed by Assam government’s alleged indifference to famine in Mizoram, then a district under Assam, Laldenga formed the Mizo National Famine Front in 1959. The MNFF was rechristened as Mizo National Front (MNF) in 1961.
The MNF, under the leadership of Laldenga, in 1966 declared “Mizoram Independence” and waged war against India. The MNF’s fight for Mizos’ sovereignty dragged Mizoram into a 20-year insurgency.
Laldenga, under the pressure of churches and pressure groups in Mizoram, brokered peace talks in India which led to the signing of the Mizo Accord in 1986.
Mizoram, a Union Territory, was alleviated to a state in 1987 and Laldenga became the first chief minister of Mizoram, after the MNF, now a political party, won landslide victory in 1987 elections.
Laldenga’s short-lived government was toppled by Congress in 1988. He died of lung cancer in 1990 at Heathrow Airport in London where he had gone for treatment.