Tali Longkumar
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] initially began scribbling some points to write a brief article on the Affairs of the State but in the process, it dawned on me that handling with such a theme may be a boring assignment since I find nothing worth inspiring to write about the present State of affairs of our State. So instead I switched over to a more befitting subject on the State of Affairs of our State to examine without prejudice, on some of the current issues of public interest that has gripped our society under which one could only see the walls but not the horizon.
Under a Federal structure as we have in India, the constitution provides for the functioning of the Duel Government Viz the Central Government and the State Governments under which every State Government enjoys significant decree of autonomy where States are invested with the responsibility of building up their own future. Thus we have constituted our own Government, elected by our people on free will through the Universal Adult Franchise. The people, as the electors are thus armed with the power of supporting or changing a Government. The relationship between the Centre and the State in such a pattern is specified through regulations, rules, procedures and conventions where every State are invested with provisions to manage and build up their own future by themselves. Such relationship between two identical set up are essentially based upon mutual trust and reciprocity in following the maxim ‘Unity in diversity’. Such form of Government as we have in our country is opposed to the concept of a totalitarian country where the centre assumes all the powers by reducing the States to play only supportive roles.In the light of the above observation, I would like to examine transparently on some of the most critical issues on the present State of affairs of our State where the very well being of its citizens are directly impacted in one way or the other Visa Vis its relationship with the Centre. The first concern that comes to my mind is the usual practice of our State in putting pressures on the Central Government to solve all our problems that may be either inherent or otherwise. There are indeed issues where Central involvement or assistance are unavoidable but it should be admitted that all our problems cannot be solved by Delhi alone since most of our problems or crisis are our own creation and therefore we have a responsibility to solve them instead of passing the buck to Delhi. Some of the burning issues that we juggle with such as the present Financial Bankruptcy, Corruption, Violence and Extortion, Tribalism etc for which we have cultured the habit of pointing out accusing fingers on others are infact problems created by us. Even on political issues, on one side, we put pressure on Delhi for an early settlement, but at the same time, there are elements of sorts, be it overground, underground or the middle ground who are unscrupulously exploiting the volatile situation to their own personal advantage in ‘making hay while the sun shines’. When such issues and its related dialogues are being displayed either under floodlight or under carpets, the public in general for whom a Government is formed continues to languish under poverty and deprivation. This is the State of Affairs.
In an extremely competitive world where there are cutthroat competitions, only the fittest will survive. This is a reality but not a mere philosophy. We as a State have a choice either to perform and survive or succumb and perish. Here there is neither Scheduled Tribe nor Backward Area Concession. Trumpeting on the slogan of the uniqueness of our society alone will not be good enough as a survival kit in building up an ideal society. Every Nation or Nationality, every race or community numbering in thousands that thrives all over the earth too have their own peculiar uniqueness. God in all His immeasurable wisdom has in fact created every individual being under the sun in his or her own uniqueness. It is rather the strength in building up of one’s individual or national character, hard work and honesty that should determine the uniqueness of the society. Pushing panic buttons in every situation through the channel of rhetoric’s with high sounding slogans without substances will only help to expose our hidden shallow wisdom. This is the State of Affairs.
Looking at the current situation, I am often reminded about the story of the tower of Babel in the Bible. Babel was an ambitious plan of constructing a tower in reaching to Heavens with the sole objective of making a name for themselves. God however intervened by confusing their language so much so that they lost communication and could no longer understand each other and finally failing to fulfill their dreams. We have a lesson to learn from this story. Our ambition, our greed and our differences are so intense that this attitude, if not amended will always remain as a major stumbling block from achieving any note worthy goals. We jumble with issues of differences and only succeed to agree to disagree. A disturbing example of such phenomena is vividly demonstrated through the current imbroglio on the issue of Foothill Road Construction and the Oil Drilling Project that began with a lot of fund fares but presently brought to a grinding halt as a result of differences and disagreements with a result that instead of celebrations, we find ourselves engaged in demonstrations. Something has gone wrong somewhere. Due to frequent beatings with shortcomings, our mind set has evolved to such an extent that without putting much thought we tend to blame the mother nature of rain and thunder whenever the roads are deplorable and poor monsoon whenever there is a poor power supply or blame children whenever schools result are bad but regrettably oblivious about the involvement of human elements in maintaining those essential lifetime services for the people. It is indeed a sad commentary.
As an exercise, let us look at the current figures of the Human Development Index. H.D.I is a yardstick through which the overall Human Development Index relating to the status of health, social justice, decent standard of living, access to knowledge etc of a particular society is measured. The entire cycle of the State activities are either directly or indirectly linked with H.D.I. Our country ranks at the dismal position of 135 out of 187 countries. One can easily diagnose where we stand today in this field. A local paper dated the 8th June 2013 revealed that Nagaland has the lowest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 6.2% and Sikkim at the highest growth at 23.8% within the North East States. Inspite of making tall claims on various fields, our State annual revenue earnings continues to limb below 10% of our State total annual expenditure. We receive more than 90% of fund from the Centre in order to run over our own Government. It is indeed a paradox that whereas we talk so much about the strength of our society, we are virtually dependant on the Central aid for our very survival. As a result of our irresponsible spending mostly on showmanship, wrong planning and personal gains without financial discipline, we have piled up liabilities after liabilities year after year finally landing the State with financial bankruptcy and thus compelling us to make frequent trips to Delhi with bagging bowels.
Everything is not grim` nevertheless. There are silver linings behind the dark clouds. We have in our midst intellectuals, enlightened leaders, thinkers and writers whose voices are frequently heard loud and clear. We too have many talented youths who are the hopes of tomorrow. Only a sort of a mechanism is required to tape those talents towards rebuilding our society .
A conscious awakening in the form of a non violent movement has become the need of the hour. There is a need to look afresh to what happened, what is happening and what will happen. A mere debate, lecture and passing resolution alone will not heal the wounds of our land. We are badly in need of honest, courageous and competent Naga leaders as Role Models to inspire and lead our people towards a brighter future where society, specially the next generation will see the light in the tunnel.
