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The final verdict of the people in the elections to the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly after a nerve-wrecking chase on the counting day indicated 29 seats for the NDPP-BJP alliance and 30 for the NPF- NPP-JDU combine with one Independent MLA to spare. Technically it was a tie but before the day ended the lone JD(U) MLA and the lone Independent MLA pledged their support for the NDDP-BJP alliance and enabled the alliance to get the magic number of 31. The alliance was also renamed as the People’s Democratic Alliance (PDA) that very day. The icing on the cake came for the alliance only the next day when the result of the 6 Tenning assembly seat was overturned in favour of the NDPP candidate. This increased the total of the PDA to 32 in the 60 member assembly and the alliance is set to form the next government with the blessings of the National Democratic Alliance.
The only thing that each party and the people should take away from this result is humanity. Humanity because the one month of active campaigning by the political parties has divided the people on many layers. The most notable was the religion card. The sudden jump by the church bodies of the state warning against the Hindutva agenda of the RSS which was interpreted as telling the Christians not to vote for the BJP alliance was misused by all and sundry. Some portrayed this elections as the ultimate battle between the good and evil and even misinterpreted and misused words from the Bible. Some painted a picture not unlike that of the ISIS’s apocalyptic battle as ‘prophesised’ in the town of Dabiq. For some it was like the crusades of the medieval period. What was initially termed as a spiritual warfare was almost interpreted as a religious war by many. Whether it was genuine devotion and obeisance or not, the use of religious texts, songs and prayers for campaigns were reported to be rampant in many of the rural areas in the state. The last three Sundays of February were used in many churches across the state to speak against specific political parties and its allies.
However the results, that is almost a fractured mandate, came to the rescue of all. Any conclusive win by any of the alliance or parties would have divided the people more. While it may also be assumed that the church’s role has not affected the BJP but it did affect its ally NDPP. The current mandate therefore is counter-productive for the church as now the NDPP has to make more concessions for the BJP during government formation. However one thing is clear, with the current results, there will be no big ‘we-told-you-so’ statements to be made by any party or individual. No big winners and no big losers. So it is time for the church in Nagaland to introspect and separate what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. Most importantly, the church has to come up with a statement so as to reconcile and to bring healing among the people. If it finds that there have been shortcomings then accepting it will keep the flock intact else any dogmatic attitude will be the beginning of defeat in the church’s spiritual warfare.