Nagas From Head Hunting to Vote Hunting: Part II
In this part, I shall focus on the latest political developments of the state and its backgrounds as the latest political developments of the state are itself the results of the vote hunting practices during the recently concluded election to the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly.
Vote hunting in election season ended with countless violent incidents in certain part of Nagaland which usually happened in the past election did happen again during this election and no one has the answer of what will happen in the future elections. Some ugly incidents are reported in news and social media and all knew many ugly incidents are not reported too. Amidst all the dramas, the end of the unimaginable highly expensive election saw NDPP having the last laugh and with extraordinary skills managed to form a new People Democratic Alliance Govt. of Nagaland.
And where, right after the swearing in ceremony, the newly formed government after its cabinet meeting released a bold statement that it has set an achievement target of 100 days. In the matter of achieving it or not is largely their responsibility and one can only hope things change for the better whichever party run the government, it’s time for the equal growth of all section of society living in our exploited state.
Among the many decisions taken and the assurances given by the PDA government, which really need commenting as well as appreciation was firstly the renaming of Indira Gandhi Stadium at Kohima to T. Ao Stadium (due honor shall be given to the National Treasure late T. Ao, to help preserve his legacy and promote sports). Secondly, to promote the culture of meritocracy.
Meritocracy the first step to attain
transformation of Nagaland
Had the first ruling party of Nagaland state government made such decision and try hard to promote the culture of meritocracy, one can conclude that today’s Nagaland could have been much “Better Nagaland”.
Maybe yesterday’s people mentality and political situations did not allowed the first ruling party of Nagaland state govt. to think of promoting culture of meritocracy in Nagaland and even if today’s Nagaland govt. was late by 54 years of statehood, I hope every citizen of Nagaland today will try hard to welcome with open arms the move of the govt. in promoting culture of meritocracy, for govt. alone cannot promote such unique culture in an old prejudiced society. The culture of meritocracy can only deliver the biased tribal society from bad governance and this is the first step to change if we really want change in Nagaland.
Why we need to adopt and promote culture of meritocracy? We indeed have countless reasons to adopt such unique culture for whole Nagaland need deliverance from bad governance and the absence of meritocratic values in Nagaland leads to excessive bad governance for favoritism kill competitive spirit in the minds of the people which in turn wipe out the theory of welfare state and lastly increases corruption (in the form of backdoor appointment) in the state. In support of my statement, it will not be wrong to state that since from the creation of statehood, Nagaland have been over shadowed by a culture of being relatives, clansman, village people, and fellow tribe’s man, good personal relationships or having connections to get works done in govt. offices in most cases. However if the govt. does nothing to promote such unique culture after making bold statements to promote it, the law of survival of the fittest shall be confirmed again in this old prejudiced society. In such environment the poor shall be forced by the current situations to remain poorer and the trend of socio, political and economic exploitations shall continue unabatedly.
As there exist no establishments in Nagaland competent enough to pass guilty verdict to the guilty ones and make them pay for the rampant corruption and bad governance of the state. The irony is that the common people knew and chose to mingle freely with some section of guilty ones (in fact it is extremely difficult to get acquaintances with the guilty ones as the ignorant and equally guilty general populace has make them their undisputed masters in the first place). In the end all are equally guilty too in the land inhabited by many self styled social activist and social workers and also where every words/statements uttered or declared by the people will relate to the Bible or of being Christian state without any second thought of who or what we actually are, in reality.
Under such hopeless scenario, little relief do come with the facts that few percentage of really working types of social and anti corruption activist do exist for newspaper and social media gives reports of corrupt practices in various departments of govt. offices including corruptions committed by different village councils across the state and what amaze us is that judicial proceedings for such corruption never followed till now in the land of social and anti-corruption activist including self righteous and fake Christians. Even then these fake Christians continue mixing religion with politics giving solid justifications for doing so, not realizing that they too condemn and accuse BJP of working in sync with RSS and being religiously intolerant and communal with hidden destructive propaganda designed especially for Nagaland. If we checked ourselves without any reservation, we are equally intolerant and extremely communal too but I can guarantee that citizens of Nagaland will never admit such thing for we all know what we are and what nature of politics is played in our state then and now. And I shall never fear or mind to live under the conditions of bad governance or good governance of govt. whether lead by Christians or Hindus, if religion is not mixed at all with politics in the first place. This opinion of mine seems out of the given topic yet it all relates to the current political scenario of Nagaland and I shall save more of my opinions for other time.
In order to keep the record straight it is exactly in the times of such unwanted political developments taking place due to bad governance taking place at different level (village, district and state level) across the state that the NDPP in alliance with BJP composed of old but popular faces in their own right came into picture and promise that change will come if their party is voted to power. As what have been said, the party slogan of “Change is coming” did the tricks and now they are voted to power to bring change and it is also in their power whether the party will indeed bring change or not as promised before election.
And as whole Nagaland watches and waited with hold breath and fixed eye on the swearing in ceremony and right after the oath of office was administered to the newly form PDA government, at the blink of an eye few remarkable positive changes did came straight away in the form of renaming the Indira Gandhi Stadium, Non-appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries, Curbing of VIP culture by putting ban on use of name/designation plates by ministers, legislators and govt. employees in vehicles. These are some of the positive changes seen after the election and the Assurance to promote culture of meritocracy is among some assurances of upcoming changes worth mentioning.
Only time can tell what changes will follow up or would the public witness the repeat of the same stagnant situations and the gone day’s political drama happening again. People are indeed waiting for change, let the sequence of disappointment in govt. sector be put to a timely end with the slogan change is coming really happening.
For without any positive change/reforms in the governance system, majority of people will be left behind again and the polluted practice of vote hunting will continue to return in the successive state general elections hijacking the all round development of the people i.e. state.
