Benito Z. Swu
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]re our leaders, both underground and overground, really in control over their respective circumstances over which they should and must be by virtue of being in the forefront and holding the torch? Or are our leaders so selfish and full of themselves that they are least bothered about the sentiments and the sensibility of the people while adopting the means to achieve their ends?Are the top leaders of all the “Naga National Warriors (currently overground)” {NNW(CO)} have their authority so compromised that they are now just figureheads and checkmated into silence in the fear of being contradicted because of them not having a clue about what is happening below in their pyramidical setup? Have they become beggars who cannot be choosers? The nauseating stink of it all compels the common Naga men and women to think it to be so. How else then can one explain a Noorjahan Hussain (maybe related to Saddam Hussain, I do not know) armed with a 9mm caliber shorthand and that too along with a silencer, on being caught and interrogated thankfully by the Assam Rifles, started singing like a Canary that he is simply a small fish of a tax collector at the orders and behest of his superiors going by the name of one Johar Ali and Hashim both of whom are obviously important members, a part and parcel of the NNW(CO) under the banner of “Nagaland for Christ.” The Naga people cannot and must not allow this to happen. This Naga fight for self determination after all these years cannot and must not end up as a zero sum game.
Are all these in the self sanctifying belief that as long as the ends are met, and by willfully or very truly not knowing about the means, justifiable and does not amount to any wrongdoing of the top echelons in the NNW(CO)? Is these all because these immigrants have no conscience or remorse and thereby never hesitates in looking straight to the eye and pulling the trigger? OR is it because the point finger of these immigrants are not conditioned to function through the signal system of the neurons in the nerve tissues headquartered in the perpetrators brain, but from the voice order of the immediate another immigrant superior who too is conditioned with the same wiring network excluding the brain and accountable only to the next superior? Anyway and whatsoever the Naga people will not tolerate this. We will not remain intimidated.
While the extreme elements and they are in the majority in Pakistan has openly voiced that it will bleed India to death with a thousand cuts, we are even more diabolic than them. They are talking about doing it to their made believe enemy that is India. We are however doing it to our own people. In the name of Nationalism, if the NPW(CO) think this as a definition of liberty, let it be known in no uncertain terms that the definition of our liberty means to be able to voice out and never be silenced even in the face of a silenced firepower. We the new breed are absolutely convinced that dying for the liberty to voice out is not a sacrifice, but a privilege. It is just so surprising that an issue as serious as these does not seem to carry merit for our so many organizations to seriously voice out aloud individually as well as collectively and ask for answers. A brief note of condemnation in a corner of the dailies is not even worth the ink wasted in it. Is it the fear of the silencer fitted gun that is coming in the way? If this does not merit a voice out, please, no more of those hue and cry about unabated taxation, multiple taxation, corruption, accountability and the blah blah. Come on! An illegal immigrant with no less a 9mm caliber shorthand fitted with a silencer on that high horse and pedestal of enforcing so called National tax under the banner of Christ, obviously licensed to kill with just a silent muffled “thud” if he deems it fit that the subject deserves to die for denying to meet the said end. For Christ’s sake, if not for oneself or anybody, voice out.
If the meaning of dynamic or maintaining dynamism even unknowingly becomes multi-dimensional, it is never sustainable. Sooner and not later it will meet its rock bottom. Once the cat is out of the bag, it becomes difficult to put it back. It is the dynamics in being one-dimensional that can never burn out. When thinkers in the society and as an organization becomes forced to be myopic because of spreading itself too thin in its multidimensional approach to issues, the end result is more often than not, murder, without coming in contact or/and shedding a drop of blood. When the idea is to try and bring all the people together at a go, it is never sustainable. If all the people are able to come together, then what is there to change? Everybody and everything will remain as it is. The saaame. If Shakti Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Pran, Gulshan Grover and the likes all becomes the Hero, then where is the Goonda. Where will the story be? Where is the hindi film? A leopard cannot change its spots overnight. Even as a hero Shakti Kapoor is going to bully. A Shakti Kapoor can only play the lead role and again be cast in and as the lead role in yet another film and thereafter, only if the people liked him playing the lead role in the very first place, something which is unlikely as the cine-going audience had loved seeing him only as the hate character. Role reversals cannot be rushed. Or else it will become an Abhishek Bachchan in the news because of Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.
Going offtrack is where some might think I am going, but not so as yours truly sincerely thinks it is all related and as such that, actually there is a justified mindframe of thinking on the subject that empowerment of women in Nagaland has been long overdue. All the more so because Naga women in general and by tradition has been shouldering much of the responsibility in the making of a home more than in many other societies, and in the final decision making of the family which is the very basic unit of society. A society and its fabrics are more or less the reflection of the wisdom and faith of the women folks of that particular society. As such we can safely deduce that, even without coming to the forefront and being directly recognized as such, the sum total of the decisions reached in Nagaland is the unseen consensus of the decisions reached by the women folk of the Naga society. Tied down with the real serious responsibility of home making and more and more the fire burning responsibility as well, it will be asking too many too much from the mothers. But in times of like todays which cannot be called normal as it should be, the stakes are high and it is a given that the active participation of the mothers, the women folk, could very well make and be the difference. It will never be a vain wasted effort and time if the mothers in all their wisdom can take the backseat initiative or even better the forefront initiative in spearheading a very specific issue or two, and taking it to the logical conclusions. Women can work without bruising egos which otherwise could have remained as painful stubborn thorns. Yes, that motherly touch needs to be there.
While talking of mothers, allow me to bring Manipuri women into the context. The state of Manipur with its cocktail of some three dozen self designated freedom fighters cannot get worse than this. Gun battles and confrontations with casualties has become the rule rather than an exception. As on paper, no sane person will give a second thought to visiting Manipur. But in reality how come Manipur is more stable than Nagaland which definitely looks better in paper. There’s more development work going on, there are more professionals, more entrepreneurs, more sport personalities – even superstars, more stability of the state government which has been ruling for some donkey years, more feelings in the Union Government that Manipur cannot be bye-passed, more collective faith in their Chief Minister, more political wisdom and sagacity in the mindframe of the common people. What is it that makes them that? Digging a little deeper and what we see is that Manipuri men would have been nowhere had it not been for their women. Infact Manipuri men are only basking in the warmth of the Manipuri women. Except for shooting and shouting at each other, Manipuri men are what the women folks want them to be. It is the unity of the Manipuri women, the bonds of which traverses beyond the relationships between the Manipuri men which is holding them in very good stead. Seeing is believing, and what Naga mothers can do is to study and transfer them to our context. Forget about the tour to see the Taj Mahal or the Red Fort in New Delhi. There is plenty to see and study, a night’s journey away from our home, in Manipur. The contradictions that is Manipur and the reason for the success of the Manipuri story – the uncompromising attitude to maintain the unity of the women NGO body and her interests is that unique character which our Naga women needs to study and emulate.
Getting to the headlined topic, yours truly have a view or two, but it is too much of a risk to overcrowd the present and stretch oneself too thin. Moreover the pen seems to have run out of ink, and thank you for assuming the same. Till then.
