NAGALAND is in chaos and in turmoil. Nagaland is shattered and torn.
Nagaland is crippled. Nagaland is hijacked and robbed. Nagaland is maimed. Nagaland is in utter shambles. Nagaland is engulfed by a dangerously destructive trend. Nagaland which is called a Land for Christ is defaced.
Nagaland is over-milked by those who are supposed to nurture in hobnob with strangers forcing Nagaland cow to become thin and lean.
Nagaland is run by the advice of few indispensables whose contribution is solely minting money meant for the indigenous people. The employees of Nagaland Govt. have to work without salary for months together and its public are left high and dry whereas its exploiters are creating assets in metro cities in India and abroad. The only option for schooling the children of indigenous people is half-staffed Govt. village schools as compared to the children of the exploiters whose children are in the nationally and internationally renowned institutes in India and beyond.
The factors which are ailing Nagaland cannot be enumerated at one go nor do I know every ill of our society. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to understand what caused Nagaland to be in a total mess.
We all know that greed for easy money is the basic cause of all ills. How much should I reiterate it, and yet any election in Nagaland from Students’ Union election in a College to State Assembly election are all unfair and undemocratic. One may not believe, but it has become a tradition that even in many colleges in Nagaland that much money is used for college students’ union elections. Our elections are totally corrupt, dishonest and it has no integrity. Seats of power are most practically purchased or gotten through coercion or both as we all know. So, the system has become a vicious cycle: voters extort pound of flesh from election candidates and those elected do not waste the chance of extorting the State exchequer in return.
In Nagaland context, be it any election either to prominent NGO beside State Assembly, an aspirant has to have the back up of one NPG if not more in addition to splurging huge money. This fashion has become a tradition in Nagaland. And of course, no NPG will give free service to anyone if not with a firm commitment to be at the back and call of the server once seated in power. It is reportedly known that today in Nagaland, disbursing of percentage share of funds to NPGs by State Govt. is treated as normal.
The bazaar talks goes that there used to be the percentage deduction of the funds of all Departments at source. It is reportedly learnt that when a Department seeks for release of its share of fund, it is forced to pay % to Finance Department. Such deduction is always to the consternation of any department but without doling out such percentage, a department will not get anything. Such deduction is not against any work, perhaps, nor receipt is issued by the recipient at source. In other words, the concerned Department has to bear the consequences for the total amount released and shared by producing false expenditure statement covering the deducted percentage. Should there be any query on the said expenditure of any Department, the poor Director and staff of a Deptt. have to bear the brunt and those main culprits will just laugh at since there is no record that stands against the big fishes.
We talk about Naga national workers imposing taxes on people. True, directly or indirectly none is spared in the taxation menace. The worst hit is the people below poverty line because of both indirect and direct impact of taxation. Yet, the said deduction of the departmental funds is, perhaps, a new culture and the worst. It is learnt that many elected members and bureaucrats have to literally worship certain fellow bureaucrat in order to get normal funds released. This is only an instance of how the popular govt. governs the State of Nagaland.
It is incomplete without highlighting two instances of similar nature in private sector. Indeed I do not find befitting word to express my dismay at those heinous crimes. The first is how a non Naga building construction contractor was threatened to leave Nagaland. Of late, some Naga workers have started to pick up the construction works, and yet both private and Govt. RCC buildings in Nagaland are built by non-Naga workers and we normally call them ‘mistiry’. A proprietor hired the service of a head ‘mistiry’ and team who completed the slab castings of a big RCC building somewhere in Nagaland. Once the slab castings were over, certain elements were used to threat the life of particularly the head ‘mistiry’ who had to fled from Nagaland bag and baggage escaping from imminent death without receiving payment due to him. The proprietor made much profit since not much was invested on labour cost. This may not be the only case but similar cases seem to be rampant in Nagaland. I leave the further comment to Church except that how Christianity is negatively painted by such unimaginable act of a Christian against a non-Christian.
My second story is how a capable head ‘mistiry’ declined to carry out the construction of a big Church building in Nagaland to which he committed. This head ‘mistiry’ is an experienced hand in Church building works, and so he was hired to undertake the massive construction. The head ‘mistiry’ was happy that he got such ‘good work’. However, he decided to rescind the contract at the initial stage. The construction Committee reportedly had a decision that the best available quality raw materials would be used. However, when iron rod was brought by Construction Committee, it was found to be of inferior quality contrary to indication in cash memo. The dishonesty of the Construction Committee disappointed the head ‘mistiry’. The non-Christian head ‘mistiry’ realized that it was too risky for him to carry on the work in view of future consequences. Should there be earthquake in future and by which the building collapses killing many Christians in that church, he would be questioned. This is the reason how the head ‘mistiry’ opted out.
Having briefly highlighted one or two instances of how Naga world has become, I never placed self above anybody from honesty point of view. Nevertheless, it is a matter of deep concern for the kind of environment we have created for ourselves and the kind of mess our children are to inherit from us. The kind of Nagaland as of today is not what the pioneers of Statehood wanted it to be.
