Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd)
Holy Cow! What is our world coming to? Temporarily stationed at Chumukedima Police Complex for the High Power Committee assignment, I have been watching with amazement, all the frantic preparation being made to welcome one Mr. Amit Shah, the National President of BJP Political Party, visiting Nagaland on the 17th April 2015. By all account Mr. Shah has no protocol standing and is nowhere in the National order of precedence unlike Chief Ministers and MPs who have. Being powerfully close to the Prime Minister of India therefore, does not alter his status beyond being a mere political party activist. His sole agenda for a visit to Nagaland is to galvanise and enhance the influence of BJP in this region. He would therefore, be duty bound to attempt enticing the Nagas to join the BJP rank and brainwash the Nagas to show obeisance to their holy cow, now a protected animal by law in States like Maharashtra and Haryana with the hell bent intention of RSS to make this law applicable Nationwide. This is a fanatical racist Party that places a cow above mankind, willing to legally prosecute anyone for cow slaughter.The gullible Nagas are probably prepared to play along with Mr. Amit Shah and agree to worship the cow for the present in order to milk ‘Shah-cow’ for power and money, even if they otherwise have ‘cow meat’ cooked for dinner later in the night. The code of honour that our ancestors stood for has now become a scarce commodity with sycophancy becoming the more dominant characteristics abundantly visible in our own backyards.
The State machinery gearing up full steam to host a political party personality that is responsible for perpetuating atrocities against the Christian and Muslim minorities in the country and aspiring to elevate the status of a cow above man is astounding. Chumukedima Conference Hall is being refurbished with new sets of Voltas air-conditioners on a war footing. While this refurbishment may be in the normal works programme of the Police Department to do so, the timing is in poor taste. It appears more like the work is being done with urgency to afford Mr. Amit Shah the comfort zone to enable him to indoctrinate the ‘christian’ (not ‘Christian’ with a capital “C”) Nagas to become Hindu cow-lovers. This kind of a christian is just another ‘Clan’ of a Naga Tribe now being primed to become cow worshippers. I have witnessed wine glasses and beer mugs of all shapes and sizes having been washed and carefully laid out on the dining table of the Police Mess for a dinner fling with his party cow herders on the 17th night of April 2015. The Commissioner Excise ought to also come for inspection and ensure that the police staffs and Officers deployed for this task are doing so elegantly enough in keeping with the status of BJP President...after all a thing called “Prohibition” is just an eyewash. The Home Commissioner of Nagaland and hoards of other senior Civil and Police officers have been hovering all over the place to ensure that all things are in order. The whole atmosphere in the Police Complex is akin to the elaborate preparation made during the Prime Minister’s visit earlier.
The changed meeting schedule of Mr. Amit Shah as published by Nagaland Post (16th April 2015) is also quite amusingly revealing. It is the RSS that takes the first focused attention of Mr. Amit Shah followed by the BJP Nagaland State cowherd unit. One wonders whether the Naga cows have any gray matter left in them to see through this National priority of the BJP where we are just mere pawns in their communal chessboard. From the Naga’s perspective, the hoard of NGOs like the Naga Hoho/ENPO/NMA/Naga Council/Muslim community and the Church being slated for a couple of hours to meet Mr. Shah does not make any sense to me. Nagas would do well to remember that the Christian persecution and discrimination and criminal vandalism of Churches in the mainland is more than real being covertly encouraged by the BJP Government at the Centre through their communal RSS/VHP thugs. Everyone with a spot of gray in between the ears ought to see through the lip service to secularism being enunciated by the Prime Minister only in order to retain acceptability in the eyes of the International Community. The routine persecution and coercion beginning to happen in action against Muslims and Christians within his kitchen is entirely a world apart. Therefore, no amount of verbalising will make an iota of difference to a made up mind of BJP on the issue of secularism...unless of course our NGOs have other personal economic agendas that they would like to accrue from such a meeting. If the Nagas are truly Christians and would want to send out clear signal that persecution and discrimination against the Christians is not acceptable, the only language that the communal forces will understand is a boycott of its ideological stalwart like Shah. They ought to avoid him like a leper instead of making a disciplined beeline to meet him. This action would have more impact than words can express.
It appears that Mr. Amit Shah has graciously reserved 7.45 - 8.15 PM for Chief Minister of Nagaland. The earlier itinerary had the Governor of Nagaland also listed in this gracious gesture of a time slot by Amit Shah. Probably better senses have prevailed in the Raj Bhavan, Kohima because the Governor seems to have been excluded in the latest schedule...unless even he has been included in the first schedule of Mr. Amit Shah’s meeting with the RSS as an RSS member and not as Governor of Nagaland. Whereas it does not seem to have dawned on Mr. T.R. Zaliang that he is the Chief Minister of Nagaland. This office is not a private property for him to do as he pleases. There is an issue of an honourable protocol. For all practical purpose, Mr. Amit Shah is only a BJP activist who should be calling on the Chief Minister of Nagaland if at all and not the other way round. It is an insult to the Nagas as a whole that our Naga Chief Minister should be attending a time frame appointment given by a no body. What is even more unpalatable is for the faceless Chief Minister of Nagaland to cheaply go through this humiliating motion without considering the fact of an official protocol violation. The annual Plan/Non-Plan State Fund is an obligation that the Centre is constitutionally honour bound to provide without our having to grovel for it. The State is also duty bound to use its resources transparently. The obvious problem here is that the State’s annual allocation is being siphoned off from under the table and no matter what the amount, it is not sufficient enough to fill the bottomless pockets of the politicians and the bureaucrats. Asking for more at the cost of our honour has become a natural/normal way of life in Nagaland for which the Chief Minister is prepared to forget his station and ignore all protocol norms like a sycophant would do. Shame on him but more so, shame on us for perpetuating sycophant Chief Minister and MPs who also have been time slotted in Mr. Shah’s schedule as well! Has the Chief Minister not already done enough damage by ordering the Government machinery to officially peruse the business of hosting Mr. Amit Shah, a political party man whose party political activities has no relevance to the Government servants? This is a foul unacceptable precedent being set. It is also not a duty for the Government to fend for his comfort zone but for the BJP cow herders to do so. Instead he is being treated as a VVIP in the Police House meant for official dignitaries. These are all very clear signs of cracks that are beginning to already appear around our Christian foundry which the Church needs to recognise and stand prepared for the real battle of faith ahead. Are we, as a people, capable of withstanding this Hindutva onslaught? Maybe we shall review this question some other time. For now we might just as well accept our status as sycophants willing to sell our mothers for a buck...starting with our very own...the Chief Minister of Nagaland. This is sycophancy at its best.
