Corruption is a threat to Nagaland

K Thong (Achilo)  

Nagas have witnessed how corruption has demoralized them and their institutions. It has divided and degraded the Naga society into isms undermining a sense of modesty and honesty which happened to be their pride once upon the time. Because of corruption many talented and deserving youth failed to get the right opportunities while many undeserving are occupying chairs of white collared jobs. Corruption has become a way of life and blinded our society and murdered the Christian spirit in the Naga society. Dignity of labor is ignored and everyone looks for how to make easy money or how to do less work and amass more money. Nagas have failed to become good Christians and good citizens. A good Christian is morally high, spiritually strong, selflessly preaches the gospel to the people, practices what he preaches and sacrifices so that others get salvation. A good citizen has good attitude and civic sense and he zealously fulfills his responsibility towards the society.  

But, unfortunately, after corruption has dipped down the social roots from government machinery, everyone attempts to take the best from the backdoor but denies giving the best to the society because the same is not established on trust, moral values, Christian ethics and ethos. Everyone is wrongly placed in every sector in Nagaland. This is not developing but destroying Nagaland. Nagas are slaves to corruption even though they deliberate on bringing better social change. It is not surprising that rare honest men are called idiots in the society. Many say that Nagas should bring about better social transformation in the society but they are not sufficiently inspired, determined and prepared and they don’t act accordingly because they are not willing to liberate themselves from the slavery of corruption. Nagas know corruption is the wrong way of life but they don’t deny unfair opportunities when the same come their way. It is beyond the capacity and competency of citizens to dare the popular government practicing absolute rampant corruption. Every preventive measure or guideline is designed to be manipulated by reigning coterie. One can liberate oneself from corruption only if one is determined to apply the will power to overcome it. The will power comes from profound positive thinking and many great thinkers and philosophers had testified and transformed the society with their powerful thought and philosophy. Nagas too badly need great thinkers and true philosophers at this juncture to lead them towards acquire enlightenment for better life. However, it is fortunate to have favorable condition to bring better social change as the most powerful force in India i.e. the central government under BJP led NDA is enthusiastically taking burden to thoroughly replace the filthy formula of corruption with corruption free formula. When the government has the political will and the people have the determination to do so better social change is possible. And the present time is the best time for the people of Nagaland to swing into action with affirmative gesture to the cleansing task of BJP led NDA government sweeping the dirt every corner ie eradicating corruption. It is materially and morally cleansing India and not just sweeping dirt with a broom. It strongly indicates that BJP has great thinkers and philosophers in its party fold without whom executing bold anti-graft step to lead a thoroughly corrupt country towards corruption free-state would be ever impossible task. There was no corruption in the Naga society in the past. The practice of corruption is of recent time. Nagas will be able to release themselves from the slavery of corruption and practice of deception in public life when they resolve to change their mindset and give an opportunity for true development to take place. To be true Christians and be trust worthy living by fear of God depends on every Christian. There is no need to spread fear of external threat when Nagaland is already under threat by corruption. The biggest challenge for our people is to jointly remove this threat to our society. You can never become a true Christian if you cannot free yourselves from corruption.  

If your faith as a Christian is strong enough then even the mighty gods, goddesses, devils and demons can never harm you and you will have the strength to resist whatever practice harms Christian faith.  

Why Naga Christians have failed to better transform the society with voluminous books of the Bible in their hands. They have chosen the unbiblical and corrupt way of life and jeopardized Christianity in Nagaland. The need of the hour is that true, serious and great Christian believers and God’s servants in Nagaland (if any) should immediately reform and strengthen Christianity in spirit and principle. They should toil day and night preaching gospel and promote Christian values and ethics everywhere in Nagaland at the pleasure of the Holy Spirit and produce many true and disciplined believers. They should listen to the people groaning and heal the agonized lot and bring peace and tranquility to them for the sake of Jesus Christ. Christians’ organizations should function as the good office of God’s servants ever ready to serve at the will of Jesus Christ and not as authority that governs. Followers of Jesus Christ are His servants and not professionals and their service is response to the call of God. They should practice at home and outside what they preach in the church and crusade and serve Lord Jesus Christ in the interest of the Holy Spirit by sacrificing carnal interest. They might have done many good things but it seems they have not done enough. They are not able to convert surrounding areas and have failed to reach out the good news to name sake Christians and non-believers. On the other hand school drop outs, social unrest, anti-social elements and devilish influence are increasing. The goal of Christianity is to attain salvation for the Bible says if a man gains the whole world and loses his soul then what it profits him. The purpose of Christianity fails if it fails to bring new souls to the path of salvation. How wise or clever a man may be, but his wisdom cannot bring him after life salvation but through Jesus only one can attain salvation. There is no intention to politicize Christianity but the fact lies in our weakness and failure to uprightly uphold the same to make our society spiritually and morally strong.  

Stray statements provided by a few Hindu maverick fanatics inciting communal disharmony cannot be generalized. Their pessimistic dominant ideology of transforming India into a Hindu official state by means of forced reconversion and gharwapsi formula is disapproved by the BJP led NDA government and the majority Indians. Nor the action of some extreme Hindu rightists discriminating the minority in the garb of cow protection or gaurakshak is accepted by the government. These negative coercions are parts of law and order problems and are dealt with as per the law of the land. Such infringe elements cannot be allowed to destroy the age old social fabrics interwoven with the secularism under the constitution of India. Shall we judge a party or government or the Prime Minister of India on the basis of evil deeds of some violators of law? Time and again, Narendra Modiji, the PM of India has assured that there is complete freedom of faith and that minority religious communities would be protected by his government and he means what he said. PM has to response to the International community watching India as to how it is handling various issues including communal one. India can never afford to lose the honor accorded by the nations of the world for its time tested belated history and glorious culture of tolerance till date and the fame for being the largest democracy of the world. With its unity in diversity feature, it has to face the international pressure especially the UN. Many great nations are learning greatness from India and it too is doing the same and updated with the latest thought and technology in various fields to become a super power and if a growing super power ever tries to be communal it is internationally bound to collapse. A communal nation is cut off from other nations and can never become a super power of the world because of self-destructive nature. These are some reasons which will never allow India to become a communal country.  

Opposition role is significant in our gigantic democratic country and honored by its citizens for healthy criticisms with enormous experience and wisdoms in the national interest. However, the harm of destructive criticisms and misleading statements should be rectified allowing the truth to prevail in the society. There are some parallel political parties like the Congress and it’s off shoots claiming themselves as secular parties without competent development agenda to discuss except making propaganda and throwing allegation on BJP on communalism and twisting its development programs. They speculate everything along communal angle and exaggeratingly paint picture of the events to suit their election agenda. They have pessimistic agenda but they don’t have optimistic development agenda. That’s all they can do when people wonder as to why they do not present their own agenda instead of wasting their valuable time in criticizing every foot print of the BJP. The fact is that they don’t have any new visionary agenda or proper policy to push up the poor and the country. How a political party can be trusted to provide good leadership when it is not able to produce a clear-cut policy. They are still unrepentant for how they failed the nation. People are judging and are ready to decide again by exercising adult franchise in a few months and some political parties will be further decimated. Some people try to defend corruption when the people of Nagaland and especially the younger generation yearn to liberate the society from grafting situation as the future belongs to them. Attempting to defend corruption in the garb of protecting and promoting secularism will not help improve the position of a political party. What is meant by the term ‘secularism’ when people have no rozi roti to eat? It is a mockery to democracy to enjoy freedom of religion without food to eat, shelter to dwell and clothes to wear. People have become poorer and poorer without getting basic necessities of life. Secularism is an integral part of India which permits freedom of religion of one’s choice but with basic needs and not without them. Denial of human basic necessities is a human right violation and a crime to humanity. And it takes place in a country which is ruled by a party that indulges in rampant corruption as was during Congress dynastic regime. They have slanderously and nearly succeeded to some extent in misleading the public and maligning the BJP as communal party. However, they have failed to convince the masses in their effort to paint BJP as trigger of communal unrest and reiterate to glorify their flopped development agenda wiped out by the tide of corruption. But, no one can ever fool the people again and again. People have realized the truth behind deceptive schemes beautifully designed and converted into scams when Congress was in power. However, the BJP led NDA government, under the leadership of Narendra Modi reconverted the scams into schemes once again. Indians or the Nagas can never forget the kind of life that BPL people have been dwelling in poverty. It is horrible to ever imagine about how India has produced big number of beggars, influx of Bangladeshis into the NE, the emergence of haves and have nots and moral degradation over the decades. The identity of NE people has been endangered due to ill policy of Congress vote banks politics. Unfortunately, the present generation is paying the price for all the irreparable damages incurred by predecessors. The more they criticize the BJP and the NDA government the more people come closer to it. Of late, the people of India have realized that it is only BJP which has the political will to uplift the poor and truly transform India into a prosperous nation. It has thousands of agenda and developmental programs like the ever flowing natural fountain of water source.