After nearly three weeks of campaigning by political parties and the candidates the electorates of the state will finally vote on Feb.27 to elect the next set of representatives for the Nagaland Legislative Assembly. The present Assembly Elections will be one that has witnessed one of the shortest campaign period due to the uncertainty that prevailed for the conduct of the polls. Nevertheless, although time was running out all the political parties were able to come up with their manifestos for the elections. The first to release was the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and the last was the newly formed regional party the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party(NDPP). This elections also have one of the highest number of political parties from outside the state indicating the recent interests that the region has generated recently.
It is also on expected lines that the manifestos of the NDPP and the BJP alliance were more specific as compared to the manifestos of the other parties. The reason being that the BJP led NDA is in power at the Centre . The ruling NPF party of the state also had some very specific points on Education, Healthcare, Communications and connectivity. The Indian National Congress with few probable winning candidates in the present elections instead dedicated a few pages of their manifesto to attack the BJP and also the earlier NPF-BJP government. It no doubt also had some very specific points for the youth and the student community. The commonly covered issues by all was the Naga political solution , corruption, various schemes related to the Centre’s Act East policy, the overall infrastructure of the state and the welfare for the citizens. The NDPP stood out for the special mention and promises for the eastern areas knowing well the 20 seats from the area.
However, the effect that manifestos had on the public is just a deafening silence with a few exceptions. The many forums in social media also is bereft of discussion on the manifesto of the parties. It is also noteworthy that it seems many of the parties are also not sure of themselves and their manifestos that except for the usual PR exercise of releasing it there is no proper dissemination. The conventional media too may not have done enough justice in disseminating the manifestos of the various political parties. It seemed there is a collective unwritten understanding that the manifestos are just formalities during elections. The majority of Nagas with strong oral traditions are still more focused on the person and their charisma. The public still enjoy personal attacks laced with wit. Rhetoric is a necessity in politics but in Nagaland it is presently overrated.
Then comes the overt personalisation of politics that the lists of policies for the common good is ignored. The person, family,clan, khel, village etc. comes first. It is not the fault of the candidates only but it is the public who fail to hold the elected members accountable to implement those promises after the elections. The scenario worsens as many of the constituencies are quite small. So today, as it is the case for the last 54 years, the Naga public will go to vote but the written matters, the promises made by the political parties, will probably be lost forever again even before the first vote is cast.
