By Jonas Yanthan | EMN
Politicians of the day are lecturing us that there is no peace in the State because of the unresolved political movement and since peace is prerequisite to development their Government is unable to develop the State. Shall we call this is a blatant lie or a hush-up of their inability to govern the State because even as they continue to blame the imaginary absence of peace for the prevalent impoverished State, each one of them along with their cohorts is being enriched and developed at the expense of the State’s exchequer. Fortunately, this is keenly observed by the society and misappropriations of various Departments are being unearthed by well meaning NGOs and Student’s community. We all know that there was a time when Nagas were all so innocent and gullible that they could be easily cheated and bluffed but today we live in a time when all Nagas cannot be fooled at a time.
Blaming ownership system of the State as a hindrance to development chanted by some Ministers, even Chief Ministers, and few top bureaucrats time and again is another comical chorus. This line of thought only affirms their lack of commitment and exhibition of their poor education. Another equally flimsy contention of concentrating the business hubs in the foothill areas under the guise of NSDZ by leaving out the majority hill areas and its population and, in the same note, suggests setting up of airports on the hills is pure schizophrenia. I am not against bringing in railways or airports into our mountains but in all fairness these are not the need of the people now. The sarcasm is most of these VIPs have seen the world. They have seen prosperous Mountainous, Desert and Island countries and coming back home to offer nothing but blame our State’s hilly topography and the Article 371(A) that protects rights of the people as impediment to progress is simply incompetency, cowardice and poverty of ideas.
It appears that Nagaland is led and governed by a “Pack of rowdy people” who cannot see beyond their kitchens blinded by their graze for power and money. The fruits of such visionless leadership and governance are corruption, lawlessness, injustices and the end result of which is the misery of the people beyond redemption as long as power is vested in such leaders. Visionless governance include wrong priorities in developmental plans like the recently held “colloquium on roads” that stressed on superhighways when the minimum required roads are not there and maintenance of the existing roads are crying need of the hour.
To conclude, Peace is not prerequisite to development or progress. If we want peace, we must fight for development; if we want development, we must fight for justice; if we want justice, we must fight for accountability; and if we want accountability, we must punish the guilty without fear or favor. This is the brazen truth to peace and progress. The only question is do we have the will and the courage to stand up for Justice at any cost. This is pertinent because no one can give us peace nor develop us except ourselves. Cowardice will take us nowhere except into more chaos and vegetative life. All tribes claim themselves to be warriors but that was a long time ago. Can we kindle in us that spirit again for a dignified life or remain cowards, for this is what we Nagas are today, and die an ignominious death a hundred times in life until we actually die?
