Kaziranga group of Ministers, MLAs and the Governor are not wrong when they say they have the numbers. However, they are right only as long as the crisis was a normal numerical struggle. What is wrong with them is their failure to remember and understand the recent public upheaval due to mishandling of the ULB elections leading to the unfortunate killing of three precious lives, injuring dozens, public inconvinience and burning down of properties besides chaos in various parts of the State that led to the change of guard from TR’s leadership to Dr. Shurhozelie. Former Chief Minister, Mr. TR Zeliang had to step down on moral ground and not for loss of faith of the MLAs in him therefore Mr. Zeliang’s coup attempt now by reclaiming the number of MLAs at this juncture when the graves have not yet settled, the tears of the bereaved families not dried and the ugly burnt offices still standing makes the move unreasonable. This attitude is simply a glaring exhibition of one who is hungry for power. The more questionable in the issue is that there isn’t even one among the more than 40 MLAs able to understand the issue and speak the truth and prevent such demeaning adventure. This matter is not just a misfortunate but a curse for the people of Nagaland.
Observing the ongoing drama, the public may take it as an opportunity to conclude that this bunch of politicians have nothing to offer except chaos. The other option is despite knowing it one may still vote for them to witness more chaos and zero or lip-stick development. In this rationale, the public must understand that these politicians have nothing to lose because there is no law or rule in Nagaland to catch and punish them, at least for now. It will not be surprising to say that in Nagaland, No Rule is the rule, No Law is the law and No System is the system and in all this the most unfortunate sufferers are the people.
One of the glaring mindsets of these politicians has emerged and that is their dictatorial attitude and the example is the warning of punishment issued to the bureaucrats despite the existing legitimate Chief Minister, Dr. Shurhozelie. And the other is none of them has any programme for the people except their goals set on clinging on to power by hook or by crook. It is a blatant fact that event after more than fifty years of statehood no Chief Minister or Minister had any road map of development of the State. What we have had up till now is only piecemeal developmental activities, most of which are only on paper and statistics, based on the whims and fancy of the concern Minister. In this regard, I had said in my earlier writing that we have no ‘Minister for Nagaland’ except ‘of Nagaland’. At the most what we have is, as we tend to utter, a “Lotha Minister”, “Ao Minister”, “Sema Minister” or “Angami Minister”. Unfortunately this is also true because these ministers see either only their constituency or District.
It appears that there is no favorable future for the younger generations except collapse of everything; roads, bridges, buildings and the most serious of all the collapse of system and moral principles as we are witnessing now. The Naga populace is so gullible and their Ministers have no programme for them. What we are witnessing is a collapse of integrity and lack of healthy rationality from day one of the Statehood. The religion practiced by the people today is also mere “opium” as Karl Marx has rightly puts it and people at the helm are knowingly or unknowingly perpetuating that misconception. The only way out for us is for the youths to take a resolute stand to evaluate whom they are going to vote. Platform system of choosing the candidates must be enforced along with thorough screening of the candidates from all angles like authenticity and integrity of the person and this will not be a difficult task because everyone in Nagaland is an open book. One factor which must be ruled out is money possessed by the present politicians because what they have is all ill gotten money (people’s development money). The other is learning to speak the truth without fear or favor. The word of God says, “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
Jonas Yanthan,
yanthanjonas@gmail.com
