We the people of Nagaland ought to have realised by now that when we criticise the Government of our own ‘elected’ representatives we are actually criticising ourselves. So let us go right ahead and criticise ourselves. The recent comical performance by our so-called ‘elected’ Members of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly reflects in no uncertain terms that ‘Democracy’ in Nagaland is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The health of Nagaland Democracy has no chance of recovery because it has been admitted into the dysfunctional ‘never to be completed’ Referral Hospital in Kohima.
Part I of our story: The Indian National Congress (INC) is a National Political Party at war with the BJP at the Centre on critical ideological policy differences including matters of extremely intolerant Hindutva prosecution of minorities like us... amongst others. Every Naga, capable of thinking, ought to know that the erstwhile Opposition Jokers, [the Nagaland chapter of Indian National Congress], joined the present NPF/NDA government against the expressed wish of their High Command, despite BJP being a coalition partner, had nothing to do with wanting to speeding up the ‘peace process’ by any stretch of imagination. It was simply a childish smoke screen, concealing their core intention of salvaging power to recover the election expenditure by hook or by crook...mostly by crook! Nothing more nothing less! In so doing, they practically compromised and destroyed the democratic structure of an indispensible opposition bench in our NLA. They have blatantly let the people of Nagaland down just to satisfy their personal selfish agenda. The Joint Legislative Committee taking a Naga Political awareness campaign holiday to the mainland Delhi without even knowing anything about the “Framework Agreement” can at best be described as a stand-up comedian performance. It’s no wonder why India ignores the general Nagas population as an inconsequential subhuman, unworthy of real consultation. At the end of the day, their ‘hard work’ has only resulted in the INC now questioning BJP Government as to whether this non-transparent ‘framework agreement’ was signed between GoI and NSCN (IM) at the cost of sovereign integrity of India.
Part II: Closer to home take a dispassionate look at our ground reality: According to media report, the Twelfth session of the twelfth Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) completed their two days ‘serious’ State business in just 49 minutes flat. Wonder never ceases in Nagaland for all the wrong reasons. Imagine the gigantic corruptive rubbish piled up in our backyard but our government has shown no backbone in wanting to clean up the mess...rather add more to the existing pile like it was nobody’s business: What of (a) the scathing CAG report of financial misappropriation pending against all the major departments in the GoN? (b) The candid HPC report and recommendations against mounting corruption both by the NPGs and the State Government which has been left in the cold storage with the excuse of it still being studied for the past year without action? Are the people being made to believe that there are no more working brains left in Nagaland bureaucracy for them to study a simple report without an answer for so long? (c) The lack of spine to constitute Lok Ayukta in the State to check corruption and scams of varied description and being looked at as a threat against their baser interest? (d) Backdoor appointment system? (e) The stifling mafia taxation system being imposed by all the NPG factions like there was no Government? (e) Can it be denied that our very own GoN, rather than check and control the blatant excesses being committed by the factions, is instead not only a serious revenue contributor to the Factions but is also financially torturing the common man through its own home-grown revenue departments as additional key players? (f) Does it not reflect poorly on the government that ACAUT should be shouldering the responsibility that the GoN ought to have shouldered and at least promptly and stringently prosecute the already exposed fuel adulteration mafia with sufficient evidence stacked against them? Choosing to remain silent despite F & CS Department is seriously being suspected to be in nexus with these adulterating vultures was and is not an honourable option even if he has given instruction to set up SIT; He owes it to the people to declare his government’s moral policy stand on critical issues such as all these and more. The depraved mismanagement list can go on and on... with no reprieve in sight for the common people. It almost appears like good governance is no longer an issue for the present government. On the other hand look at the significant achievement of the last Assembly...The precious 49 minutes was spent to pass a Bill to increase their own salaries further to satisfy their insatiable comfort zone while families of many a Government servant... (SSA teachers etc?) ...go hungry without pay and students go without their scholarships? What the CM had said about the Central flagship projects has a ring of half truth that without the release of fund by the Centre for the projects, those appointed under such projects cannot be paid. The NSSATA is rightly contesting the ‘co-terminus’ proposition based on the technical order of actual appointment which the government ought to scrutinise more closely. If we however pause a while and ask why the GoI has not released the fund, the bottom-line reason will invariably be because the GoN has either not bothered to earmark their 10% State share contribution to the project or have failed to satisfactorily submit the utilisation certificate. But what about the funds already released by the Centre and still not being paid to the concerned...like the four lanes road project for which land compensation has already been released? Who in power really cares? Their ruthless reality is to do with the survival of the fittest...dog eat dog...End of story. The simple fact is that there is no opposition bench in our NLA to question the performance of the ruling bench. Internal source say that there was a general whip served to all Members not to raise any question in the Assembly. Wow...that is really pathetic if true! Each member in the NLA with portfolio(s) has an unclean finger in the pie without doubt. With or without a whip, it would have been downright stupid for any member to raise any official question in the Assembly against any financial irregularities of other departments for simple logical reason that his peers would then also exercise their rights to raise questions against him about his own financial indiscretion in his own sector. So...why should there be any question(s) Mr. Chief Minister Sir?! Come to think of it, some might even say... taking 49 minutes in two working days to wind up the State business under such a congenial setting, is utterly inefficient! It should have been completed in less than 30 minutes.
The bottom-line of painting this broad unsavoury canvas is simply to encourage another focused discourse that has relevant importance: I seriously believe that we the people are directly responsible for creating the Frankenstein and the Ali Baba leaders that we have. In all fairness we can’t blame our politicians alone. Once joining the fray, even the staunchest Christian has no choice but to become corrupt as long as the unfortunate system of selling and buying votes during the election remains. We have ‘vote sellers’ and therefore there are ‘vote buyers’...we have ‘vote buyers’ and therefore there are ‘vote sellers’. This is the absolute core of the despicable vicious cycle that is spinning our world out of control into the cesspit. When voters insist on selling votes the candidates have no choice but to buy it because they are in the contest to win. This compels them to sell, mortgage whatever assets they possess, take heavy ‘naga’ loans @ 10% per month in desperation to buy the votes. Many of the candidates are known to have spent Rs.15-45 Crores for this mother of all gambling! They do not spend this much for free as a social service. Therefore the story at Part I and Part II of this write-up concerning the desperate effort to recuperate the election investment becomes a natural compulsive trait without exception as a human being. Now, what we...the voters...must understand is that when we sell our votes it amounts to selling our rights. Take an analogy...when we go into a shop and pay for a commodity and then destroy that purchased commodity in front of that shopkeeper, that shop keeper will have no right to tell us not to destroy the commodity... because he has already sold it. Selling our votes has the same implication here. Therefore we have no right to ask for development or anything else from our Ministers/Parliamentary Secretaries/Advisors because they have purchased our rights and they are entitled to use it in any way they want. So why complain about bad roads? Why complain about anything else? Let our Ministers/Parliamentary Secretaries/Advisors make up their election losses from our public exchequer meant for us and steal some more for the next round of election when they will again have to buy our votes because we will be selling it. Is this agreeable? Certainly not!
The next election is not too far away. Unless the Church, the Apex Tribal Hohos, the NGOs , the youth and every concerned citizen takes a proactive responsibility to spread this awareness to the masses at the earliest... We will continue to get this kind of a government that we deserve. Give it a serious thought or else democracy in Nagaland will never leave the ICU!
