During the recent swearing-in ceremony of the council of ministers in Kohima, the crowd and the state leaders who were already seated had to sit through one comical moment. The crowd and almost all the state leaders had arrived and were seated waiting for the dignitaries from the Centre and the neighbouring states to arrive. Continuous music played through the PA system while the NDPP-BJP music video was also played out in the giant screens intermittently between the songs. The former chief minister was also seated alone in his designated chair waiting for the other leaders to arrive. Just then, the DJ of the day played the 1980s hit song of the Swedish pop group Abba, ‘The winner takes it all’.
“I don’t want to talk, about the things we’ve gone through, though it’s hurting me, now it’s history, I’ve played all my cards, and that’s what you’ve done too, nothing more to say, no more ace to play, the winner takes it all, the loser standing small, beside the victory, that’s her destiny," blared through the speakers.
While it was light-hearted and surely without any insinuations, just going by the title of the song, for those who knew the background of the song and the lyrics well, it would also have been an amusing moment because of the way the former chief minister and the present parted ways. It was also a bit metaphorical because, as the title suggests, the usual appropriation of credits do occur in our brand of politics when the leader at the helm is changed. On the other hand, for some it was no doubt a moment when the cringe-factor was beyond comfort levels because both the groups, who are the 60 elected representatives of the state were all seated right in front of the crowd, in spite of the just concluded acrimonious campaigns.
However, the take-away from this incident should be that the usual winner takes it all politics has to end in Nagaland. The small state with the nuance of community which is time and again misused for political gains has greatly divided the people. Assumptions with suspicions have taken over fact and good faith in the present society and petulance has become the order of the day. The newly elected leaders led by the Treasury Bench has to chart new rules of engagement hereafter. The parochial attitudes that usually dominate the system of governance after every election or change of guard in the government have to be done away with. Instead magnanimity should be the keyword of the leaders. The ruling alliance needs take along the constituencies of the opposition too in the path to development.
