Witoubou Newmai
Once, the Naga People’s Front (NPF) was imbued with strong Naga national fervor. However, with recurring political pandemonium including the latest crisis, the ‘banalisation’ of the party is in full swing.
Initially, for the Naga electorate, the Cock party was more than just a mere political party - a strong proponent of regional interests and aspirations. Today, the NPF has degenerated to a platform to serve the power-hungry politicians. The Cock party has shed loads of ‘Naga-ness’ over the years with the party becoming more synonymous with power-politics. It is time for the Naga electorate to ask whether the NPF has already drifted from its ideological moorings.
The current situation in Nagaland State reminds one of Australian politician, Kim Edward Beazley Senior, who once said, “If your motive is power, you will most likely distort the truth. If your motive is the truth, you will be fit for power”.
With the Nagaland State Assembly polls round the corner, it has become imperative for the electorate of the State of Nagaland to assess whether our politicians are “fit for power”. This is also the best time and opportunity for the electorate to show the politicians their rightful places. This is also one occasion for the electorate to express decisively that subjugation to disgraceful treatment is no longer acceptable.
As the Naga people are going through the most critical situation, the electorate must exhibit their seriousness. The Naga voters must work to understand the idea of electoral politics in the Naga context. It is also time to assess by how much the electoral politics has vitiated the Naga interest.
It goes without saying that behavior of most of the politicians illustrates covetousness guided by impulse of vested interest. But the glaring irony is that, the voters often bring back those elements, whom they consider as recalcitrant, to power over and over again for years. This is a collective tragedy of our society.
The voters have also been saying that these politicians, not even daring to invest their energies to address many existential questions lurking for a long time now, find much stimuli and energy in fighting over trivial matters. When we are passing through a time where the government cannot provide even a decent road or normal power supply, it is an experience of much frustration that our own legislators are busy displaying callous attitudes. It is time the people stop ‘talking the talk’ and start ‘walking the talk’ by using democratic means for a common good of the society.
