An uncut diamond

Benito Z. Swu [dropcap]S[/dropcap]aach ka Samna. The moment of truth. It is not as if the mind is playing games which is not reality. It is the mind that is being played with, and this is reality. Given the situation and circumstances, it is but very natural, justifiable and good that it happened. What options did Nagas had yesterday or have today? Running with the hare and hunting with the dogs was not and is not going to be of any good for the Nagas. Infact it was hurting the Nagas without we even not realizing the damage that was being done in the sub-conscious level. As it is, it is always man who proposes, but God who disposes. The reality for us is to accept that whatever the valid reasons for discontentment, our leaders are there and here because our living God willed it to be so. Whatever the Machiavellian ideas of men, if God our Almighty Father in Heaven had not willed it, nothing can or could have happened. It is so very correct for the people to voice out unhappiness, but reservations has to be there in our role as pressure groups or a critic at an individual level, lest we fall prey against the idea of what the living God has planned for the Nagas. Let us just for once introspect. No single Naga, young or old, rich or poor, the ignorant as well as the wise, the intellectuals, the politicians, the bureaucrats, nobody could have imagined the reality of Nagaland as it is today just a year back. No presumptions or assumptions can again predict what will be so a year down the line from today.Reality, as has been said is stranger than fiction. If we really do care, what we then can do is to pray hard and tell our living God, “have Thine own way Lord, have Thine own way”, but please, please let it be good because a roving mind never remains stable. We collectively will have to disturb Him no end, and from amongst all of us, atleast there will be a prayer or two whose prayer the Good Lord will be compelled not to let it remain unanswered. This is where a single true believer’s prayer answered, metamorphoses into a common good, without any one of us even remotely aware of how, where or why.The world is changing. India has changed and is changing. And Nagas too is not immune to the change. The only hiccup in all these changes in the world is that the change can only be for better or the worse. Nothing in between. And therein lies our role. We have to steer that change for the better. The outlook of India’s perspective today is not very encouraging or palatable in our context, and one infact shudders to even think or imagine about what is coming next, tomorrow, leave aside looking into and beyond the horizon. The confidence bestowed upon Narendra Modi by the people of India, his reputation as a doer, and the absolutely absolute majority that he commands today was the reason people actually felt secure, but going by certain ongoing trends, the confidence looks more and more misplaced. It actually is fast loosing its sheen. Narendra Modi is not looking like Narendra Modi. And this is not good news. In such a climate of uncertainty, it is becoming a moral responsibility for every citizen of our state to be extra cautious before taking the proverbial leap. New Delhi is not just playing politics. The consequences of the absence of a noteworthy opposition in the Parliament is going to pinch non NDA state governments where it hurts the most, and more so to a small Christian state like Nagaland. This state of affairs is what every responsible person has to educate the less literate and the less responsible. As of today, it is because of pragmatic and grounded individuals, who have experienced very early on, the fantasy of experiencing what everyone today sees and takes for granted, those same people like Smriti Irani, the Hon’ble Human Resource Development Minister of India, who has, inspite of the odds, has gone all out against the forces keen to paint her worth as unjustified, through the positivity of her attempts. Infact she is one of the few, a blooming lotus in the midst of the not good smelling contents of a pond – a soothing balm to an aching spine, a consolation for the aam admi to look forward to. Falling into a category where one identifies a position as an entitlement is definitely a worst case scenario, and seriously, many in the Narendra Modi cabinet is playing out that role. There is a lesson, albeit an extreme one, one might say, which can be learnt from the DEA in the USA. The drug cartels were always a step, if not more, ahead of the DEA. Inorder to check this superiority of the cartels, the DEA came up with the novel if not unconventional idea of their men gaining confidence of the cartel by themselves becoming addicts. There is this small element of sacrifice which one sees in the entire episode. Yes, the cartel ring cracked. And so, to all the doomsday predictors, reign in your horses and remember that it takes a diamond to cut a diamond.