[dropcap]I[/dropcap]s it not the loving, living God working in His ways unknown that had, and is protecting us from the brunt of the high-handedness of the (perceived) enemy all this time? One, having born into the house of an in and out military commander who never shied away in letting one see, close up, the grit and the dirt, the pain and the gain, and the vision that goes in the planning, the execution and thereof of military operations, it might not be wrong on the part of one to express as such; “Just as beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, so is bravery, sacrifice, or treachery, which not many in today’s time might be in the know and thereby differentiate.”Maybe it is time for Nagas today to take “stock checking” of the times so far. To bite in, in the reality of today – to make a fresh new start for tomorrow. In military parlance, ceasefires are meant to dig in and stock up. Maybe we did neither or just the other.
It is ironic that the Indian security forces are looking like to be living more in the New Testamental times than that of us Nagas. Had they followed the more conventional method, or rule of the Old Testamental times when an eye had to go for an eye, the recent unconventional ambush on the water-tanker security detail of the Assam Rifles would not have gone unretaliated. Just that thinking does us no good, either for peace nor for the soul. Now that we have a stable State Government which has lived up to its motto “Unity”, it will be good for the Nagas if we allow the Government to dig in and stock up for the overall development of our state.
Benito Z.Swu
