For the 29-year-old officer who was transferred from Chandigarh to Mizoram in January as an additional secretary in the state Information and Communication Technology department, the latest experience may serve as an eye-opener to the challenges of governing the country's northeastern states.

Her father, Anil Kumar, retired as Chandigarh UT Home Secretary in 2019.  

Recently, she was given the director’s post in the state food, civil supplies, and consumer affairs department and then transferred to the higher and technical education department after three days.

In view of the circumstances prevailing in Mizoram where student and Church organizations compete with the state for power and privileges, the Mizoram IAS Association was constrained to speak out against the MSU and support Ms. Kumar who has recently been given the post of the state's higher and technical education director.

Commenting on the unconstitutional tactics of the MSU to compel Ms. Kumar to relinquish her job because she's not a Mizo, the IAS Association said in a statement that the main reason for the MSU seeking the director’s replacement was “the apprehension of probable controversy during the forthcoming selection of candidates for technical courses under the department if a non-Mizo officer oversees the selection process.”

“The Association would like to express its honest opinion that the controversy if there has so been, in the selection of candidates for technical courses could not be ascribed to commission and omission solely of a non-Mizo officer as head of the Department of Higher and Technical Education. It is rather a matter of adherence to given norms,” the statement added.

It pointed out: “The question of being Mizo or non-Mizo does not arise at all in an inadvertent or deliberate mishandling of such a selection process. The apprehension on the aforesaid premise is, therefore, considered baseless.”

It further said: "The attempt to deny an officer her rightful place merely on grounds of unfounded suspicion of her future performance is utterly in bad taste and an attempt to oust her from her legitimate official position on the pretext of her being non-Mizo is most likely to be tinged with a communal color, which will not be in the best interest of the students in particular and of the Mizo society in general.”

It cautioned that the irrational act on the part of the student body may trigger avoidable wider repercussions, thereby tarnishing the image of the Mizos.

“It is, therefore, the Association’s strong belief that it will be for the sake of justice and in the larger interest of the public to create a congenial atmosphere for Nazuk Kumar to continue work in her new assignment peacefully,” the statement added.