Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, March 3: The fact that even the state’s election office was without any accurate data regarding the final result to the 2018 Nagaland assembly elections way past midnight on March 3 was the clearest indication to the uncertainty that defined Nagaland politics for a few tumultuous hours after completion of counting votes.
However, the emergence of the NDPP-BJP combine – bolstered by the joining of an independent candidate and another from the Janata Dal (United) – in the early hours of March 4 also provided a window to a parallel pattern that was already in play even before the negotiations were underway.
Despite the adamant stance of the Naga People’s Front (NPF) that its alliance with the BJP was still on – a gobsmackingly brazen statement considering the way it had branded the BJP as an outsider during the election campaign – the BJP had refused to take the bait.
With 12 seats out of 20, it stuck with the NDPP and – this is crucial – even as the NPF leaders were busy feeding news agencies with comments containing suggestions that it was set to form the government with the help of the BJP, the NDPP turned its attention toward garnering the support of those outside the NDPP-BJP combine.
With the benefit of hindsight, it can now be clearly seen that the NPF as well as the now-decimated Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee had based their electoral campaigns on the issue of faith and identity – with the implied assertion that those on the other side of their divide were on the wrong end of faith and identity.
Even the Baptists churches, under the banner of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), had launched an all-out campaign asking voter not to choose ‘those with communal agenda’ but rather opt for ‘Naga identity.’ The irony of a faith-based group asking voters to choose ‘god-fearing’ candidates while denouncing ‘communal parties’ was apparently lost on the NBCC.
On this score, the NBCC did not come out untainted especially when it had launched such a vigorous campaign for clean elections across the state. The NBCC however issued a press statement clarifying that it was neither in support nor against any political party.
The religion card was also played to the hilt by the NPF as well as the Congress. While this struck chord among some, the fact that the BJP managed to win 12 seats out of the 20 it contested suggests that something else mattered more than religion.
Development was the keyword – and the winning riposte –that clinched the argument for the NDPP-BJP combine. Along with newspaper ads assuring development, even the political campaigns of the alliance’s star campaigners were focused solely on the promise of development in the state.
The final reading comes down to this: the NPF played to the gallery riding on the ‘emotion’ of identity and faith while the NDPP-BJP combine presented hard and cold economics. The fact that whoever forms the government would be crucial to the expected Naga solution warranted no repetition.
In a Christian-dominated state, the BJP was projected as a major threat to the Naga people by most political parties as well as the powerful NBCC. While the NBCC and the Congress cautioned the citizens about the spread of Hindutva, the president of NPF Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu had urged Nagas “not to gamble their faith with politics” and termed this election as choice between Naga identify and ‘outsiders’.
In response the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, rubbished the “anti-Christian allegations” and said his party was clear that interest of the majority Christian people have to be protected at all cost.
“The allegations that the BJP party supports anti-Christian activities are completely baseless because BJP has been fighting to protect the interest of Christians in the state and also national level,” Rijiju had said.
The NDPP’s chief ministerial candidate Neiphiu Rio had also vowed to protect the rights of the Nagas while thanking the church organisation for expressing concern. The NDPP-BJP alliance had the riposte.
However the same cannot be said of the NPF. Because the NDPP-BJP combine cantered its campaign on development and nothing else. And in response, the NPF had practically nothing to show.
Even when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally at Tuensang it was conspicuous that he did not attempt to respond to any of the ‘communal politics’. Instead, all he talked was development –in a district considered as one of the most-poverished in the state.
Even Rio followed the same blueprint. By assuring development in the state, they were successful in illuminating the failures of the incumbent government to deliver the same.
Before leaving Tuensang, Modi had managed to strike chord with the people there when he pleaded, ‘Moi eman dur pura ahishe. Naga laga neyom pura moi ke khali haat naputhabi’ (Do not send me back empty-handed). His wish has been granted now. It now remains to be seen if he can deliver on his promises.
