The count is how efficiently the government responds to the crisis and not the scale of damage recorded. In addressing the cases of landslide, epidemic break-out, mob fury or tribal clash the state government of Nagaland is yet to prove its worth. Its response to the Tikhir-Yimchunger issue is extremely disappointing. The state government’s reluctance to step out of the cozy stereotype approach is the tragic lot all together.
Lack of genuineness in its approach to the problem perhaps bankrupts ideas and numbs senses that men and women, children and aged people of the two tribal communities in Tuensang and Kiphire districts have been left in the realms of danger by the government all this while.There are resources and mechanisms to address the issue beyond the ambit of just deploying salary-waiting, ill equipped uniformed men in Shamator town. There is also more room for attractive articulation on the issue than just making routine appeals for calm. Appeals will work where there is a logical mechanism to support them. Making an appeal is also relevant to some extent in a situation where the two parties repose faith on the other. Here, situation is different—the trust deficit between the government and the public continues to spiral downward. In the past one year the state had witnessed several unwanted events including the March 5 lynching, the Phesama landslide, the Dzukou inferno, the Yimchunger-Chang issue, Southern Angami-Mao conflict over Dzukou, the foothill road impasse, the NSCN-K ceasefire abrogation issue and the list goes on. Not once did the state government exhibit such levels to attract public appreciation. To quote just two cases from the list—the March 5 lynching and Southern Angami-Mao conflict—insipid responses of the state government to those situations could not save the day.
The build up to the March 5 incident could be sensed from the morning of the previous day. The state government had enough time to prepare to thwart the ugly event. Regarding the Southern Angami-Mao conflict over Dzoukou, volunteers were openly pulling down passengers from vehicles selectively on the broad highway for weeks but the state government could not find stimulation even to that level of an inhuman side of the humans.
When in such a sorry state as our state government is, can we find anything more dangerous portent than this?
