The statement of the Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh that the general election to the Nagaland Legislative Assembly will be held as scheduled reminds me of the year 1998. It so happened two decades back that the Congress was in power and there was a campaign to boycott the election to facilitate a solution to the vexed Naga problem. This resulted in all political parties boycotting the election except for the Congress who won 59 of the 60 constituencies leaving one to an Independent candidate. Then the Congress party did not heed to the cries of the general public as it was in power both at the centre as well as in the state.
Except for the ground realities and circumstances, the situation looks quite similar today as it was 20 years back. Though the BJP is not in power in the state, its ally, the NPF is holding the fort. The internal bickering within the NPF sets the perfect platform for the BJP to grab the chance to contest this election on its own and form a government on the same yardstick. A chance is a chance and in politics one cannot allow it to go begging whether it is Congress or BJP as they are nothing but the two sides of the same coin.
This opinion is a personal one from a former Congress activist, who was privileged to spend more than a weak in confinement for participating in the election and released only after the polling was over. That was 1998.
Timir Choudhury
