In what could be one of the most absurd of cases, a popularly elected government enjoying a House without any opposition flipped and flopped its decisions on an issue at least every day of the last ten days to bring to the surface that it is now assumed there is more to it than meets the eye. It all started on the January 23, 2017 when the Joint Coordination Committee had a public rally in Dimapur against the conduct of civic polls since the tribal bodies consider that the municipal Act infringes on the customary and traditional practices of the Nagas. The reaction from the government of warning the organisations ahead of the rally was the first indication that there was a genuine apprehension on the part of the government with the tribal organisations already successful in making many of the candidates withdraw their candidatures. The rally was attended by thousands including women who all the while were thought to be supporting the conduct of the civic polls with reservation of seats for women. A memorandum for the postponement of the municipal elections was submitted to the government, calling for postponement or face a state wide bandh from the 27th of January.
The government on its part, instead of discussing in the Cabinet, utilised one of the oldest traditional art of saying no by a government. It utilised the bureaucracy to say no to the memorandum, that as usually always makes use of some rules and procedures as the reason for saying no. The highest decision making body of the state that comes after the Legislative Assembly abdicated its powers and forwarded the memorandum to the state election commission, not for advice but for a decision. As expected the next day the state election commission replied in negative stating it cannot stop the electioneering process once it is started.
However seeing the impasse the chief minister invited the members of the joint coordination committee for a meeting and informed that he will be meeting his Cabinet after 2 days. Therefore the bandh that was to commence from the 27th of January was called off for a day on the request of the chief minister. The Cabinet instead reiterated the observation of the state election commission and stated that the civic polls cannot be deferred and once started it has to be brought to its logical conclusion according to the provisions of the law.
The state wide bandh finally started on January 28 without any untoward incident except for some isolated cases. However twists and turns at Kohima continued with the Joint Action Committee for Women Reservation agreeing to withdraw its case in the Supreme Court provided the government can give written assurance that it will go ahead with the civic polls with women reservation. Therefore as required by the action committee the next day on January 29, the chief minister on behalf of the government came out with one of the strongest statements to go ahead with the civic polls. It even blamed the former members of parliament for not objecting when the municipalities were inserted into the Constitution.
With such strong stance by both the groups, the Nagaland Baptist Churches Council stepped in as a third party and brokered a deal. A two month postponement of the civic polls was agreed by the government whereas the coordination committee would assist the government in dialogue with the tribal organisations to discuss and rectify the municipal Act. However it took the government hardly 24 hours to backtrack on its earlier commitment with the Joint Action Committee that was signed in the presence the NBCC. An interim order on a petition filed in the Gauhati High Court to ensure a free and fair conduct of the elections to Municipal and Town elections with 33% women reservation surfaced which clearly mentioned the attendance of the Advocate General. This time too the government used this order from the court as the reason to conduct the civic polls. So unlike the earlier instances, Cabinet contradicted itself and directed the state election commission to conduct the polls in those areas where there were no disturbances and protests against it. Elections were announced in 12 municipal/town councils and deferred in 7 municipal/town councils. Another contradiction arose because with elections in some townships it indicated that the same Act was active and in force when it was being discussed to be amended in the state.
The order also indicated to refer the tribal organisations as extra constitutional bodies, but in actual these bodies are almost all now co-opted by the government for the purpose of consultation. In an earlier warning to the tribal organisations, the chief minister had stated that “Article 371(A) vests the sole power to determine questions whether an Act of Parliament affects customary law or not, with the NLA and its decision is unquestionable and final”. It also leads to another contradiction because the tribal/regional/range organisations are attributed to have acted as the final stamp of support for the statehood and even Article 371(A). The church body that negotiated a deal was left red faced and this episode also did not go down well with the Christians in the state. This led to complete disorder and confusion with a strong feeling of betrayal among the public leading to violence and the death. As of filing this column the government has again contradicted itself by postponing the electoral process in all the municipal/town councils across the state without bringing it “to its logical conclusion”.
