Even as Mizoram State Home Commissioner and Secretary H Lalengmawia held a meeting with the Meitei community leaders and assured them of their security, the Mizo Students Union is conducting a Meitei census on July 24 in the State.

AIZAWL, July 23: Even as tension is brewing in Mizoram over Meiteis living in the State being asked to leave by a Mizo association following last week's video viral of a disturbing incident that occurred on May 4 in Manipur when the ongoing violence began, the Manipur Government is preparing to airlift the Meiteis in Mizoram threatened by the Mizo youths' exploding anguish over the assault of Kuki women by a crowd of men from the rival camp. Many Meiteis have already left Mizoram by air and road since Saturday.

Sensing a growing "anger among Mizo youths" against the Meiteis over the assault of two tribal Kuki-Zo women by a crwod of men and parading them naked in Manipur on May 4, the Peace Accord MNF Returnees’ Association (PAMRA), an organisation of former extremists, has advised them to return to their State for their own safety.

Responding to the call, the Meiteis started leaving for Manipur on Saturday. According to social media, a mass exodus of Meiteis has started from Mizoram, following the statement by the PAMRA that the Meiteis in Mizoram would be responsible for their own safety.

About 65 people took flights to Imphal on Saturday while many are have left Aizawl and other parts of Mizoram by buses and taxis. All tickets for the next Aizawl-Imphal flight on Monday have been booked. There are about 2,000 Meiteis in Mizoram, including teachers at Mizoram University.

The MNF association had in its statement described the Manipur incident as “barbaric and heinous acts committed by miscreants in Manipur”. "The PAMRA appeals to all Meitei people in Mizoram to leave for their home State as a safety measure," the statement read.

PAMRA Secretary General C Lalthenlova told the media, "We simply appeal to the Meiteis to leave for their State to avoid any untoward incident. We do not serve them a diktat."

Meanwhile, Mizoram Home Commissioner and Secretary H Lalengmawia said the State Government will ensure the safety of the Meitei people living in the State. The Government had tightened security in Aizawl.

The Mizo Students Union is conducting a Meitei census on July 24 in Mizoram. And the Government is enhancing protection at key locations like Vety College, Selesih; Mizoram University, Tanhril; RIPANS, Zemabawk; and ZMC, Falkawn.

The video of two Manipur women being paraded naked by a mob on May 4, a day after the Kuki agitation started, had gone viral on Wednesday and has led to protests across the country. Some of those accused of the heinous act have been arrested.

The PAMRA said the Mizo youths are agitated over the "barbaric and atrocious act of Meiteis" against the Kuki ethnic people in Manipur.

Over 150 people have died in the violence that followed the hilll tribal Kukis' May 3 'Tribal Solidarity March' against a move to accord the Meitei community Scheduled Tribe (ST) status which will reduce their quota in reservations. PAMRA is an association of former Mizo National Front (MNF) militants set up following the Mizo Peace Accord.

Manipur has mainly two communities: Meiteis and Kukis. Meiteis living in the plains or valley constitute 53 per cent of the population and the tribals in the hills called Kukis are 40 per cent, all of who are allegedly migrants from Myanmar.

Who are the Mizos

A majority (87%) of Mizos in Mizoram are Christians in various denominations, predominantly Presbyterian. Mizoram has a Buddhist population of 8.5%, the largest religious minority, and Hindus 2.7%. The migrants of Burmese ethnicity were generally called Mizos by anthropological nomenclature who also came to be known by other names like Kukis in different places they occupied.

A land of rolling hills, rivers and lakes, Mizoram is bounded by Tripura and Bangladesh on its west, the Chin hills of Myanmar on its east and south and by Manipur and Assam on its north.

Earlier a part of Assam, Mizoram got statehood in 1987. It is one among what is called the seven sisters of the north-east, the other States being Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.

Two days earlier, in a similar incident in the area, a domestic help was bitten by a pet dog in the lift when she was going for work.

Tailpiece: Sometimes appearing to outnumnber men and women on the streets, the stray dogs are turning more and more daring with sections of anti-social elements out there to feed and protect them in order to find a window for their unfulfilled love! There is an all-pervading feeling of lack of authority.

Ankit Tiwari had told the employee that “instructions had been received from the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an enquiry” and reopen the “already disposed of” case and asked him to appear before the ED office at Madurai on October 30, DVAC said. The doctor was allegedly threatened with arrest and told to pay a bribe of Rs 3 cr to avoid the ED probe, which was later negotiated down to Rs 50 lakh.

Tailpiece: We are made to believe RBI, CBI, ED, Judiciary as sacrosanct and all others like railways, transport, revenue, education, PWD departments are composed of us the mortals, absolutely corrupt! As if in the sacrosanct places the angels descend from the heavens to work in the night and fly away before day-break! Let's be true to ourselves, we are all cut from the same cloth.

Apart from cash, Gill had also taken three planes as bribe and two of them were leased out to Redbird Aviation Academy. With the result, flying schools compromised on safety requirements and trainers met with accidents several times.

Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.

Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.

TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may, one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!

His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."

Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a person.

Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required 'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.

The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."

Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate yourself.

But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on for six days, and every year it is celebrated.

The killing of a teacher in France by an Islamic radical last Friday is linked to the Israel-Hamas war in West Asia, say authorities.

Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.

Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from shoplifting.

Isar Mohammad allegedly picked up a banana offered to Ganesh idol on Chaturthi at a makeshift temple in Delhi and consumed it.

Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her "moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.

"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary." Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala, which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the countdown for a war on the streets?

It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.

Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for Tamil Nadu."

Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)

Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.

The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!

“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.

Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.

TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for students' admission to courses.