“When, in the making of great thing, We are breaking greater thing, God forbid! I shouldn’t walk away”.
Vaprümu Demo
Kohima
Rightly claimed, DAN III is peoples’ mandated government; the other way round it is a government of your choice. Peoples’ overwhelming support- God knows whether driven by conscience or corrupt means- in installing a government for the third consecutive term and absolute majority of elected representatives (52/60) in or with the government figuratively justify this tall claim. It also logically implies further empowerment of DAN and legitimizing its sequential actions. Considering the track record of past elections this government is indeed more mandated and represented thereby more overconfident and offensive it has become. In actuality we see a type of semi-autocratic government characterized by unaccountability and immunity, a government of its own, a government without boundary. Not only has the government completely manoeuvred the political order of the day but has largely swayed the social order as well. So assimilated is the social into the political that it is hard to distinguish between the two related but distinct entity; between established social setup and destabilized political setting; between governmental and non-governmental setup or between secularism and non-secularism (even as some helplessly watch this in horror).
A chart of successive DAN government would show ascending order of government dominance and descending order of peoples’ involvement in decision making. The double punches of DAN I- ENPO mishandled statehood issue and NPSC scam followed by multiple punches of DAN II- superannuation mass termination, dismal ROP, unauthorized taxation & extortion, unprecedented corruption & scam, diversion of huge state fund to other states to count a few and now with DAN III- recognition of already recognized scheduled tribes, superficially as part of Naga honourable solution are altogether undeniably devastative in nature but surely with more sever consequential effect. Only that for too long the affected section and sensible people amongst us failed to react in time and after much water has flown below the bridge they seemed to be waking up from long slumber or sedation. Meantime the few who spelled out the bitter truth are labelled either as rebel or as anti-establishment. Not surprisingly the government expects (in fact it got used to) the silence and complacency of uncritical mass of people on public related issues until such time the matter gets thoroughly complicated for the government to handle and the public is roped in to finish the government’s undesirable job. Politics, devoid of protest is abnormal and thus harmful to the very survival of democracy. And silence is tacit acceptance, of even the worst. One political wrong committed maybe pardonable but when repeatedly or successively committed counteractive measure should have been adopted by the politically conscious electorate at appropriate time (election) which unfortunately did not happen, hence it is pointless crying over the spilt milk.
I believe things went awry from the beginning because your popular mandate is being used to rule as well as to ruin. Going by the meaning, mandate is “the commission that is given to a government and its policies through an electoral victory”. There is no arguing the fact that the direct electorate grant such authority to their government to undertake its tacit or manifest policies through repeated electoral victories. Support and mandate are synonymous term in electoral politics thus, your support given during election tantamount to sanctioning the government’s policies. From electing a government which assured time bound solution, then travelling likely beyond 10 years with the same government during which time sovereignty and integration went missing and gradual emergence of sectionalism and groupism with overshadowing and even unattainable grievances, the electorate mass have been a partaker of this tricky journey. The depressing part is that this journey has become an endless joy ride for power mongers to hold onto power and the uninterested travellers moved along with shut eyes, ears and mouth. Thus they missed out so many events directed by the government. Untamed creature is naturally wild and cannot behave, so is a government without check and balance which is otherwise the responsibility of politically conscious public. Presuming this comment is undisputed one can only say ‘why protest against the government of your choice’? After all ‘what you sow, so you reap’.
10 years of undisturbed rule has completely transformed the natural face of Naga politics by facilitating several unsuccessful plastic surgery so much so hereafter we ourselves may forget how exactly we looked like at one point of time and how do we like to look like in the days to come. Even now we have badly messed up the clear differences between the defined state politics and the undefined national politics. Whereas our Naga politics has shrunk to the size of a solution even below integration, whereas instead of uniting we are splitting at all levels, the state government, on the contrary is trying to spread its inelastic wings beyond a defined territory or share the state’s provision beyond state’s provision. Recent recognition of certain outer tribe and policy to increase more is a glaring instant of a cosmetic solution which the government is desperately trying to paint. The other but more forceful agenda could be anticipation of added finance from the centre for the increased number of ST in the state. Nevertheless, the aggrieved but sensitized tribes in the State do not see eye to eye with its own government since they do not see recognition as a solution whatsoever, be it part of political or physical or emotional integration or infiltration; rather this is rightly foreseen as ever breeding insoluble problem from within unwelcomed enlarged family. The government may awkwardly argue that one needs to expand his/her level of understanding to appreciate an issue of such vital nature but so far no one or authority has convincingly expounded or defended the logic or necessity of the cabinet decision, so unsurprisingly it generated strong non-compromising reaction. Apparently the cabinet, as usual took for granted that the huge electoral support given during election pre-validated whatever decision is thereafter taken, thereby totally disregarded the importance of public debate prior to adoption (in the assembly, not in the cabinet). Democracy minus you and me automatically turns into monocracy.
The way we see the tribe recognition issue at the moment the government resembles a fish out of water neither able to conciliate the open-protest of the tribal hohos nor able to repair the damage caused to the outer Naga tribes, reason for which it is now pushed to a delicate situation of silence and noncommittal. It is ironic that no one - neither we nor the outer Nagas - have gained anything good out of this futile hide and seek game. Even if there be some other clandestine agenda for cheap political glorification it will only boomerang, even if forced upon us it will eventually collapse because the scheme is not in the natural order of the existing society or statehood. Whatever motive and objective initially propelled the cabinet to secretively adopt such decision the inevitable legal implication and social ramification that would follow suit cannot be disregarded both by the government and all people concerned. On this subject matter suffice to mention three basic features;
(i) The term ST refers to a specific indigenous people whose status is acknowledged to some formal degree by national legislation.
(ii) The primary criteria adopted for delimiting backward communities as ST includes, amongst other thing traditional occupation of a definitive geographical area.
(iii) The word ST is an administrative coinage, used for purposes of giving out constitutional privileges, security and benefits.
Putting in reverse order it means certain special constitutional provision is guaranteed to the identified backward communities (as ST) who inhabit a definite geographical area and are recognized as indigenous people. This constitutional provision provides:
(a) Protective arrangement - measure to ensure equality,
(b) Affirmative action - preferential treatment in job and educational opportunity and
(c) Development - bridging socio-economic gap.
No ST can be denied these guaranteed provisions. In other words all recognized scheduled tribes in Nagaland irrespective of geographical division will be equally entitled such provision. These are constitutional provisions, not personal interpretation and therefore while delving on the issue the status of ST must be determined on similar basis of ‘indigenous people and traditional (not acquired) land inhabited by them’. Beside and over these general constitutional provisions for the ST, Nagaland is an exception with extra ordinary constitutional guarantee under Art. 371 (A). This special provision protects Nagaland from becoming a ‘no man’s land’.
Unfortunately, unwarranted situation is being created whereby people in the state are forced to protest against recognition of the outer Naga tribes and the latter into false believing that irrespective of such public protest this will be made possible with a patronising government. It is also unreasonable that the people of the state are forced to protest against what is constitutionally not possible to others outside the state. The government failed miserably to see this reality or visualize the socio-political ramification or purposely gambled the future of its citizens to recoup perhaps its losing image and strength. But there are also level-headed members who are not so naive as to miss or misread the actual implication and complication involved here. The issue is not as simple as the government presumed or as easy as applying for recognition and readily granted thereof. Hopefully territorial integration will be achieved someday but till such time we have to be realistic, not emotional and accept the truth of the situation we are differently placed in. The hard reality is that we live in two or more different states with defined territory; defined administration and defined provision which cannot be changed in the present circumstances no matter how hard we try. Therefore, when the genuine welfare of the people in the state is threatened by way of imposing irrational policy the affected or would be affected community protested because the scheme is not workable or conducive to the local condition. Even with a moderately responsible government sensitive to the sentiment of the people paralleled with sufficiently alert electorate involving in policy matter beyond their rare participation in electoral politics could have saved the unnecessary agitation of one group and the unnecessary embarrassment caused to the other group. However, from stray individual reaction to concerted manifestation on such vital issue by emergent pressure group like ENPO, CNTC, NTC or even ACAUT whose aggressive assertion on the peoples’ final say over the exclusive affairs of the state has become a reality to be reckoned with; a reality undermined yet predetermined that the priority of elected government is first and foremost the ‘first citizens’ of the state.
Reason for the popular mandate given and its jumbo size DAN III has self-assumed the role of a supranational government having made attractive but unachievable commitment beyond permissible border the situation developed has truly become Catch-22. Or are we heading towards a situation resembling a snow ball rolling down the hill?(even as some watch this in anticipation).
