Witoubou Newmai
Election times are the most appropriate times to retrospect on the width of the gap between constituencies and their representatives/legislators. This is also the best time for the people of the State to assess whether constituencies and their populace have had any influence of on their representatives in the past five years. For that matter, one may put up a round-about question and ask how many Naga legislators have enjoyed the support of their constituencies in the past five years. The emergence of the ‘Common Platform’ culture for the candidates and political parties in the State of Nagaland is working in the line of this exercise.
Several such platform programs have been organized in various parts of the State in the past few days. The Naga Republic, Heritage Publishing House and The Morung Express will also be jointly organising “an open public interaction with political parties in the fray for elections” to the ensuing assembly election of Nagaland on February 17 in Dimapur.
The event is christened as, ‘The Big Picture,’ which according to the organisers “aims to help people get a better understanding of ‘policy matters’ at the state level.” Besides, it will enable the citizen to “witness a discussion as well as interact with some prominent political parties who are contesting the polls in Nagaland this year”.
The organizers also added that the event “will try to engage in a process of collective thinking, having drawn from various party positions, and witness a part of how Indian democracy functions.”
The Naga society needs more of such events in order to stimulate and to give emphasis to the nub of our endeavour towards protecting and enhancing our role as responsible citizens, especially in times of election. We should be asking loudly today as to why we have been allowing our vision to be complacently limited to the viewpoints of those for whom politics is all about wielding power to serve their interests. It is a basic democratic deliberation. In extension, such an exercise will also uphold the principle of the ‘Clean Election’. The effectiveness the Clean Election campaign in Naga society is largely dependent on citizen’s participation in such democratic deliberation.
It is time for our society to deliberate thoroughly on the “proper form and scope of political participation as to who should represent whom and on what basis or who should participate and in what way” (David Held). Unless we deliberate fervently on the matter we are making the elections and issues the affairs of the vested interest politicians.
There has been much derision, along with expressions of ‘concerns’, over the manner on many of the politicians, masquerading as people’s men and women, are most interested in consolidating their authoritative positions. In a time such as this, the need for a popular “collective will formation” is imperative. Involvement in democratic deliberation is the way forward to rectify such state of affairs.
