Khekiye K. Sema, IAS (Rtd)
Forest Colony, Kohima
Like the bad old days of the American Wild West, the NPF’s internal political game of ‘Cowboys and Red Indians’ has been going on beyond a reasonable stretch of time as the elected members, [not to the “Nagaland Legislative Assembly” (NLA) but to the “Ali Baba Assembly” (ABA)…an unsavoury word in Sumi dialect], recklessly search for “Mackenna’s Gold” at the expense of the people. It has not escaped the public eye that only ‘a bureaucrat and a half’ has been attending office these days with the majority from this tribe happily abstaining from duty on a paid vacation. It appears that the bureaucracy has conveniently taken the threat of Mr. Imkong Imchen, the darling Crime Poster Boy (CPB) spokesperson of one of the Ali Baba’s camp, very seriously, not to act on the orders of the present Government under Mr. T.R.Zeliang, (their very first cousin of Ali Babas in the other camp) or subsequently be subjected to scrutiny and accountability. One may safely conclude that a short statured man who barely measures up to the beltline of others can only hit below the belt. Be that as it may, it is absolutely unbecoming and distasteful on the part of any political party or a spokesperson to threaten the bureaucracy in this manner. Until proven otherwise on the floor of an irresponsible collapsing House, Mr.T.R.Zaliang remains the Constitutional head of the State as the Chief Minister of Nagaland and therefore, the bureaucracy has no option but to carry out the order of his unfortunate Government provided such orders are within the legal boundaries of governance. The comical part however, is that… having worked under the ‘Cock’ symbol for so long, the bureaucracy seem to have turned ‘chicken’ by not attending office in acknowledgement. The Government which does not function well enough even in better normal days has happily come to a grinding halt to the inconvenience of the general public. The collapse of the system is clear and total even as the political animals continue slinging their dung at each other from their respective well secured hideouts, creating foul environment, confusion and uncertainty in their wake.
Politics in Nagaland is now operating at the lowest ebb in the neighbourhood of a cesspool. It has become insufferable and disgusting even from a common citizen’s point of view, having to watch the flaunting of all the laws and norms of the land. On 21-1-2015, the local print media have all carried a shocking case of the Speaker of Nagaland Legislative Assembly addressing the DAN Legislature Party meeting in an absolutely partisan manner. On being elected as the Speaker of the House, he is constitutionally duty bound to maintain neutrality as an impartial referee no matter which party he originated from. The moment he takes a one-sided stand to address party meeting of one faction, he becomes a partisan… especially in a time of conflict when it is all the more necessary that the dignity and impartiality of his office should have been sustained. This is an unforgivable dereliction of his Constitutional responsibility and an insult to his Chair. Mr. Speaker has unwittingly provided the much needed ammunition at this critical time to the contesting counterpart. Under a Constitutional technicality, he no longer can be perceived as a neutral entity that he is supposed to represent and therefore should have the moral decency to consider putting in his papers as the Speaker of this defiled House before the emission of an explosion…. otherwise the Governor of Nagaland should exercise hid Constitutional discretion to make it happen. It is a disgraceful performance all round!
On the other side of the dull moon, the silence and inaction of Raj Bhavan gives rise to a curious speculation that the Hon’ble Governor of Nagaland is deliberately allowing this power mongering drama to continue with a cauldron of motives… Has he been given instruction by his BJP High Command to go slow, allow as much confusion to reign while carefully studying the unlikely scenario of BJP entering the political centre-stage from the backdoor, riding on defection wave?…or to let NPF self-destruct and then replace TR with PR. There is a limit to the constitutional notion that this is an internal affair of the Party to excuse his inaction. As legitimate as his deduction may seem, Mr. Governor must surely understand that it is the public who are at the receiving end of the dastardly impact of a non-functional Government in the aftermath. Every game has a reasonable timeframe of play. As the Constitutional referee it is high time for him to blow the final whistle and conclude the match one way or the other. From the hardening of stance by each Faction… the NPF (S) and the NPF (N) [ S = Shurhozelie…N = Noke ] it looks like the NPCC is slowly beginning to emerge as a potential king maker even with a paltry representative in the House not too worth a chicken feed. But would Mr. Modi be willing to soil his pants by hypocritically accepting a helping hand from the Congress to set foot in the soil of Nagaland with the ‘defectors’ … should one of the factions actually decide to defect and join BJP in frustration?… Probably not. There is another un-quantified factor involved: consider the case of Mr. Noke Wangnao who enjoys a reasonable following within the ranks at Rio’s Villa. For whatever his inabilities and shortcomings, the one laudable characteristic he has staunchly maintained throughout his political career is his unwavering regional identity. Unlike most of his peers and juniors he has yet to cross the dirty Legislative floor of the House to defect to another party. Would he be prepared to do so now and destroy this image at the sunset days of his career riding on a defection horse?…Probably?… Probably not? Hard to say… since one can’t undermine the lure of power and money which can destabilize a mind beyond honour that he has otherwise upheld thus far. Defecting to BJP or NPCC may not be his cup of tea…then what happens?
The Government has been trumpeting the slogan of “Nagaland – land of Festivals”. A more realistic input would read “Nagaland – land of Factional Festivals”. We now can boast of 11 Factions afloat: (1) NSCN (IM); (2) NSCN (U); (3) NSCN (K); (4) NNC (Accordist); (5) NNC (Non-Accordist); (6) FGN (Accordist); (7) FGN (Non-Accordist); (8) The baby NNC (Parent Body); (9) NPF (S); (10) NPF (N); (11) Bureaucracy; Given time and the usual studied silence of the people, more factional festivals are on their way…wait and see! Across the board, the underlining common objective of each Festival is to extort/extract illegal tax/commission by hoisting a well camouflaged flags like “Nagaland for Christ” and “Stable Government for all round development for the people”. What more blessing do the Nagas need? Before more of such blessings befall the Nagas and before more Deo Nukhus happen, to vitiate the already confused environment further…
Mr. Governor of Nagaland SIR… call in the cavalry.
