In early June of 1986, Lalkhama, chief secretary of Mizoram, received a summons from Delhi. The Home Secretary wanted to see him. At the meeting, Lalkhama was told that an agreement with the MNF was on the anvil. He would be required to sign it. Lalkhama objected, saying that Mizoram had been kept in the dark about the ongoing negotiations. How could he sign such a sensitive document without getting details of the terms and conditions of the proposed accord? Pradhan was adamant that he sign it. Lalkhama suggested that the chief minister be brought into the conversation.
By now it was well into June, the hottest month in Delhi, when temperatures sizzle between 40– 45°C. It was also the month when RD Pradhan [an IAS official from the Maharashtra cadre] would be retiring from service. The agreement had to be in June or not at all. A settlement had never been this close, or so far.
At Rajiv [Gandhi]’s instructions, Laldenga [the first Chief Minister of Mizoram as a federated state] was connected to Arjun Singh, Congress vice-president and one of Rajiv’s main troubleshooters, and they thrashed out a political agreement under which an MNF–Congress government would be installed, with Laldenga as chief...
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