Open any local newspaper in Nagaland on any given day and you’ll find an article or letter on the deplorable state of the roads, the lack of electricity, shortage of water, clogged drains, back door appointments, non payment of salaries, adulteration, siphoning off of public funds/supplies etc. etc. ad infinitum. But what no one seems to realise or state is that all these are just trees in the forest of corruption that is Nagaland. We have become so engrossed in the symptoms of corruption that we either miss or ignore the fact that we Nagas have become the most corrupt people in India, if not the world; if it weren’t for the fact that the Central Government was pumping funds into Nagaland, we would have an economic crisis unparalleled in the annals of history, worse than Germany after the First World War, Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe combined.
Corruption, in the broadest sense of the word, encompasses all wrongdoing. It is not only the politician or bureaucrat that takes bribes or siphons off public funds who is corrupt, but also the shopkeeper who cheats his clients, a bootlegger, a thief, a liar, a Church Elder who misuses church funds etc. Thus we are all corrupt or are involved in or were involved in corruption at one time or another. So, corruption is prevalent all over the world.
What makes Nagaland unique is the fact that we flaunt our corruption. Everywhere else in the world, the corrupt try to hide their corruption and the fruits thereof, and when caught or exposed either pay the penalty or have the decency to express real or pretended shame and contrition. But in Nagaland, we find just the opposite. The corrupt and their children enjoy showing off the fruits of their corruption in the form of palatial houses, luxury vehicles, the latest fashions, toys and gadgets while the honest people and their children, who earn their living by the sweat of their brow, walk with heads hung low because they cannot afford what those Sons of Satan flaunt.
Do you think it’s because we Nagas sell our votes during elections that is the root of this problem? I beg to disagree. I’m all for the clean election campaign, but that will only make it cheaper for our misbegotten “leaders” to carry on looting us and depriving deserving people of their rightful due.
What I’m about to state will be anathaema to the vast majority of Nagas, but the only way to control this runaway corruption is by introducing Income Taxes. It’s no point griping about bad roads, electrical blackouts, bad sanitation, unfair distribution of supplies/funds unless we have a mechanism to ensure that funds and supplies go where they are meant to go and not into the pockets of a few politicians and bureaucrats. With the introduction of income taxes people will be forced to hide the money from their illegal sources and what they cannot hide, they will be compelled to utilise in the manner it was meant to be. Remember the United States Government couldn’t arrest Al Capone, the Mafia gangster, for any of the murders[commited/ordered by him] or the bootlegging and gambling empire he built up. It was only on charges of evading taxes that they managed to jail him.
What I’ve stated is a dream because I know that all the people in the places of power will never agree to something that will put a curb on their insatiable appetite for money. But until such a day comes, each and every one of us can do our part by refusing to look up to people just because they have money and by respecting those who have come by theirs honestly. Till that day ,console yourselves with the thought that no matter where they sit in church or how much they donate, you are the SONS of GOD and your Nagaland is for CHRIST whereas they are the SONS of SATAN and their Nagaland is for MAMMON.
