Reflectively, and with utmost concern, this column would like to advocate on the need to preserve the Naga ethos of simplicity, honesty and tolerance. The prevailing situation in the Naga society is really disturbing.
Larger portion of newspaper space is being filled by the crime reports. Most criminal cases in the towns of Nagaland are driven by the need for financial sustenance through illegal means. Dimapur is a case in point. With this, we once again questioned the credibility of our administration. Such wave of criminal activities also another reminder of the dangers facing the people in the state.
We don’t have vivid reasons to explain on rising criminal cases in the state. One thing is that, due to the ‘thickening source of violence’ in our society there seems to be an enormous appeal among the youth to indulge in these unwanted activities.
Prof Shiv Visvanathan of Jindal School of Government and Public Policy once said that people who live in the midst of violence or listen to the stories of such gory incidents have the tendency to commit violent acts. It is the spectator of violence who is truly blood thirsty as he tries to rectify history, he said. “Violence is not merely manufacture but it is a ritual of consumption. It is the spectator and the consumer who thicken the sources of violence,” he added. Given the nature of approach of the authority and the attitude of our society towards the whole affairs we still have capacity to digest violence.
Meanwhile, so many question marks are hurled at the administration. What ails our administration? We do not think our case is so complex a problem that requires a complex solution.
One think our authority should keep in mind is—simply accepting the ‘as long as the human society exists we will have evil or disturbed people’ is not going to take us anywhere. In fact, due to such mentality our administration is yet to come up with sensible violence control measures in spite of the rich resources at our disposal. You know, we do not lack answers to this problem. Two things we lack—courage and the will to do so.
