Imkong Walling
The November 1 episode in Mangkolemba town, Mokokchung district, wherein protestors reacted with fury over vote-for-cash remarks made by a state government administrator brought to fore three suppressed facts— infuriating governmental apathy, the rot in the electoral system and the nonchalance with which the former two is accepted by the people.
The happenings of that newsworthy day, in a usually sleepy town, cannot solely be blamed on the government alone. The people have been just as complicit.
As reported in the news, at the crux of the public protest was an 11km stretch of road, linking the town with the arterial Mariani-Mokokchung Road (NH 702-D). As claimed by the protesting Civil Society Organisations of Mangkolemba, which is also the sub-divisional ADC headquarters serving three geographic ranges, the road in question was last black-topped in the mid-1980s.
That was it. Three and a half decades passed by, punctuated by eight elections and several MLAs, the road was not revisited nor featured as a poll agenda in any of the elections. Sounds familiar, isn’t it? It is a trend, an engendered tradition inarguably playing out in an unchanging loop across Nagaland.
The few, who do point it out are either ignored or silenced by the majority and the loop cycles on. Truth hurts, they say. Besides, it can also provoke dissent and even angry reaction.
It can be safely reckoned that what happened on that Monday in Mangkolemba was an illustration of truth met with anger; taking offense to the mention of a polluted reality.
While not all the protestors present that day would have put a price tag to the electoral ballot, it can be also stated for a fact that what the ADC said was not without truth.
The ADC’s folly was that he used the right words at the wrong situation. If it was a ‘Clean Election’ seminar or a speech at a formal public function, the remarks would have been well received to some extent. It though cannot be stated with certainty whether the words would end up being absorbed and pondered upon.
The people, that day, were angry with a notoriously nonchalant Nagaland state government and unfortunately for the bureaucrat, he happened to be the topmost government figure in the vicinity the protestors could lash out at.
Bitters pills are hard to swallow. But if the sickness is to be conquered, the patient has to absorb the pill allowing it to course through the system.
On the brighter side, the people of the sub-division might as well thank the ADC for using the seemingly harsh words. If not for his remarks, the protest and the issue would not have gotten the wider public and media attention it deserves.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
