After the series of flip flops by the government on the conduct of elections to the Urban Local Bodies and the consequent boycott call by the tribal organisations leading to violent mobs resulting in deaths, injury and even loss of property. As covered earlier in this same column the government after a series of decisions contradicting itself had postponed the elections indefinitely without bringing it to its logical conclusion. The contention of the government since the issue started when elections were announced on December 21, 2016 was that since the process has started it has to be brought to its logical conclusion.
However when the bodies of those killed in the police firing reached Kohima and the tribal organisations demanded the resignation of the chief minister and his cabinet, the government came back with another decision contradicting its earlier orders. It suddenly forgot all the legal ramifications that it used to profess and out rightly declared the ULB elections null and void. As expected it provoked the people more that turned unruly and in their frenzy burned down numerous public offices in Kohima. Surprisingly there has not been any notification this time from the State Election Commission. The cabinet that rejected the agreement made by the chief minister and home minister with the Joint Coordination Committee in the presence of church leaders citing an order from the court was conveniently forgotten within 2 days and declared the elections null and void.
Technically the chief minister had also lost the confidence of the cabinet on January 31 when it rejected the agreement but for the court order. So sensing the imminent danger as a result of the demand made by the tribal organisations it came back with a series of resolutions signed by 41 legislatures to show that the chief minister still enjoys the confidence of the majority of the legislators. It justified its stand to conduct the ULB elections stating that it was only to fulfil its constitutional duties and to implement the law of the land. This time also the government conveniently forgot the Assembly resolutions of September 2012, wherein the extension of Part IX-A of constitution to Nagaland was set aside according to the wishes of the tribal organisations which in the case of Nagaland are considered the de facto voice of the people. It was the present assembly that revoked its earlier decision amid protests from almost all the tribal organisations in November 2016.
The final contradiction is the proposal of the cabinet to meet the Prime Minister and the President by all the members of the assembly and the two sitting members of parliament to submit a memorandum to exempt Nagaland from the provisions of Part-IX A and amend the constitution in the next few days. The Cabinet decision does not mention about introducing any bill in the parliament which is how it should be done in our system of democracy and instead it is about parading 62 Naga parliamentarians to amend the constitution. It is doubtful if the people will trust the government with this current proposal. Moreover, consider it bad timing for Government of Nagaland, but the way the Government of Tamil Nadu promulgated an ordinance to bypass a Supreme Court order banning bull-taming is still fresh in the minds of the people even in Nagaland.
