Op-Ed
Reflections On the Crisis of Village Council Elections in Nagaland: The Case of Mekokla Village, Under Wokha District
By Dr.Zuchamo Yanthan (EMN)
Village council is a very important component of the modern government system, which occupies a very significant position in Naga society. The village council is having the overall authority for the administration of justice within the village territory. Under the Nagaland Village and Area Act, 1978, every recognised village in the state will have a village council. This Act provides important powers and functions of village council such as, to formulate village development schemes and to supervise proper maintenance of water supply, roads, forest, education and other welfare activities, to help various Government agencies in carrying out development works in the village, to take development works on its own initiative or on request by the Government, to constitute a village development board, to empower certain Acts in the event of epidemic. In fact, the village council has the full power to deal with the internal administration of the village, maintenance of law and order, enforce orders passed by competent authority. The Act clearly states that ‘the village council members will choose the chairman’. It is on this issue of election of the chairman of the village council of Mekokla that the present crisis is centred.
Mekokla Village- Where is it situated?
The present paper is focused on Mekokla village, which is situated in Wokha District falling under 40 Bhandari constituency. The constituency is without any doubt one of the largest constituencies in Nagaland having more than 70 villages and covering above 50 kms. For many people in Nagaland, the discovery of this reality may come as a big surprise. The constituency is so large that any MLA representing the constituency bears a huge challenge in meeting and fulfilling the expectations of the people. Mekokla being situated at the extreme part of Wokha District and constituency has as a huge disadvantage regarding many developmental activities in the state.
Questions:
Presently, Nagaland state has 1530 recognised villages. Out of which, except few, all had elected their village council chairman. The present study will try to investigate to provide answers to the following questions:
· Why Mekokla village along with few villages were left out when rest had conducted the election of the village council chairman?
· What are the possible reasons behind the delay?
· Is the delay because of the prevalent social problems in Mekokla?
· Is the delay because of the negligence from the concerned department?
· Is the MLA of this constituency aware about the prevalent situation?
· What possible suggestions can emerge out of the present study for providing future directions?
The origin of the problem
The origin of the crisis came up on the election of ‘Village Council Member’ (VCM). On investigating the issue, it was revealed that a handful of people from Mekokla had submitted a complaint letter to Mr.Robin Kikon, the then deputy commissioner of Wokha in April 2016. The complainants demanded that all the village council members (VCM) must be a ‘permanent resident’ of Mekokla village. On receiving the complaint, the then DC of Wokha immediately directed the EAC of Aitpyong to investigate the issue and report the matter.
Government’s Investigation of the problem
On direction of the then DC of Wokha, Mr.Imliakhum Ao, EAC of Aitpyong visited Mekokla to investigate the matter. The investigation revealed that all the names nominated for VCM (Village Council Member) are a permanent resident of Mekokla village having every right to be nominated as VCM and also be elected as village council chairman. The EAC of Aitpyong had clarified to the gathering the meaning of the term ‘Permanent Resident’, which was earlier misunderstood by the people who had raised the issue.
The social unrest that had followed after government’s intervention
Inspite of Government’s best intervention in making the people of Mekokla understand the government’s guidelines, the social unrest continued where physical assaults, pelting of stones at some buildings, verbal assaults and several intimidations were witnessed and experienced by many people in the village. The situation went out of control when people started experiencing a ‘fear psychosis’ in Mekokla. On visit to Mekokla in June 2016 and December 2016, the author had interviewed few people who were a victim of social disorder in Mekokla. The findings indicate that Mekokla is experiencing a severe social crisis.
Basically, there seems to be a fall out of several anti-social elements together and complicating the situation. Secondly, there is high drop out rates of students from various institutions in Mekokla and frustrations seem to be articulating in the present unrest. It seems that a disgruntled faction of citizens who are rendered not eligible to contest in this election due to their track record also played a role in fermenting the unrest.
The outcome of Mekokla citizens’ meeting held on 10th May, 2016:
Ultimately, the social turmoil atmosphere in Mekokla compelled Mekoklains settled across Nagaland to gather in the village on 10th May, 2016, to resolve the issue amicably over a peaceful dialogue and understanding. This is one of the most beautiful things the Mekoklains settled across Nagaland had contributed towards the welfare of their village.
The meeting was conducted where all citizens present in the meeting unanimously resolved to pass strict regulations for eligibility criteria to be nominated as VCM. The idea of passing a strict resolution came into being for safety, upholding of integrity and maintaining sanctity of the village council. The unanimous resolution was then drafted and took the approval of the general public and submitted to the then DC of Wokha district along with a fresh list of the nominated members of VCM. The approved list of VCM was submitted in May, 2016.
The Mystery behind the delay in the arrival of the approved list of VCM
The larger question now is how the approval of VCM of Mekokla village took complete one year? Since there were many villages in Nagaland under similar circumstances, how Mekokla was one of the villages that were singled out in delaying the process? Was the delay possibly because of the delay in submitting the nominated names of VCM or could it be because of overlooking the issue by the concerned department? Did the constituency representative ever intervene to speed up the process or did anyone intimate the situation to the representative?
Finally, after much waiting (May 2016- May 2017), the home department of Nagaland sent the approved list of names of VCM and further given direction to deputy commissioner’s office of Wokha to go ahead with the election of village council chairman. On receiving the approved list and the notification, April, 2017, the present DC of Wokha, Mr.Wezope Kenye immediately processed the formalities and gave direction to EAC of Aitpyong to issue the order, which was efficiently executed without wasting time.
The event that followed after the notification
As soon as the election date was announced, the fear atmosphere in Mekokla slowly appeared again. The village atmosphere worsened when a certain section of people in Mekokla filed complaint letter demanding for general election for village council Chairman, which was unconstitutional. Since the village council had enough experience of negative social atmosphere in the village, perhaps they were not able to withstand the pressure from few sections of people who were demanding something that was completely unconstitutional. Therefore, under such circumstances, general election was signalled to go ahead. Since the election was conducted against the decision of the village council, none of the approved members of VCM had participated.
The larger question now is, who had initiated the complaint and under whose initiative the pressure group was formed to force the village council to take a decision that went completely against the guidelines of the government? Do government guidelines permit them to conduct general body election for the village chairman? Further, will the government undertake proper investigations to bring justice to those who had taken the law in their hands? These are the questions to government which need to be asked.
How the government of Nagaland will deliver justice to the people of Mekokla?
After investigating and analysing the entire sequence on the issue, there arise many questions unanswered. Here, one has to turn to the government authority to provide answers to their problems. Who is responsible for violating the government’s regulations? What kind of authority they hold to go against government’s guidelines? Why people had to pressurise when they are already aware of the government guidelines? What were their motives behind this? Whose brain child is it? Who is responsible for spreading fear psychosis in Mekokla village? Who is responsible for misusing the spirit of democracy by unnecessarily filing complaints after complaints questioning the guidelines passed by the government of Nagaland? What will be government’s response to people who had experienced humiliation in the hands of those people who had taken the law in their hands? What made the people of Mekokla remain silent without giving any reports of their shame and sufferings? Is the silence maintained by the people of Mekokla a manifestation of mistrust on the governmental systems for delivery of justice for their shame and sufferings? How long will the people of Mekokla witness the loss of their dreams, hopes and aspirations because of living under the shadow of ‘Culture of Fear and Shame’?
Findings of the study
Major findings of the present study are as follows:
1. There is certainly leadership crisis in Mekokla
2. There is urgency of establishing strong, efficient and cohesive village council in Mekokla
3. There are high drop out rate of students in Mekokla who may contribute to the violent activities in the village if measures are not taken to counsel them
4. There is a lack of respect towards the village council
5. There is high presence of antisocial elements in Mekokla which requires immediate intervention from the government authority
6. The past records of the village council elections in Mekokla also indicate that these elections were conducted with great hardship.
7. There is a lack of developmental activities in Mekokla which may be turning people towards frustration.
The way forward
After investigating and analysing the village scenario in Mekokla, there are several findings which are alarming for healthy existence and administration in Mekokla. Therefore, the author puts forward the following points:
· There is an urgent need on the part of government of Nagaland to intervene in the election process in Mekokla village for providing new leadership for addressing the prevalent issues and challenges.
· Once the government of Nagaland notifies for conduct of elections of village council chairman, a survey must be conducted to study the village environment whether it is conducive to conduct the election.
· For villages where social crisis are prevalent, government must intervene effectively. If necessary, must provide security measures for conducting fair and peaceful elections.
· There are high possibilities that villages having high drop out rates of students may tend to live in frustration, which may contribute to the village social environment. In this regard, government must support schools for providing good orientation and personal counselling to students who are likely to have such tendencies.
· There must be strict legal action against those who take the village council law in their hands. Such strict legal actions against these may control and eliminate breeding point of anti-social elements in the village.
· There is an urgent need to address the concerns of development in Mekokla. Only developmental efforts can prevent people from becoming frustrated.
In conclusion, the crises of the village council elections indicate a deeper malaise. This concerns the very prospects of development of the village and its social, educational and economic growth.
(The author is a social science researcher based in New Delhi and President of Naga Scholars’ Association)