Tali Longkumer, IAS (rtd)
It is election time in Nagaland. The recent portrayal of hue and cry in pressing the centre for working out a solution before election had gradually reduced to a whimpering cry, giving way to the assembly election where electioneering tempo has almost reached a fever pitch. Party tickets have been issued and nominations filed and battle lines are now drawn to wrest the most coveted assembly seats that will ultimately usher some of them to the seats of power and fame. Incredibly all the aspirants have now become good Samaritans, well behaved, all smiling shaking hands with good morning, good afternoon and Namaste; often praying but most of the time paying. It is a season of promises to the people in serving and also a promise in converting the battered state into an island of peace and prosperity.
Crores of rupees, mostly unaccounted, will go down the drain for wrong reasons during electioneering. Expenditure of this nature that does not have a head or tail nor booked against any appropriate head of account, will not be accountable to anybody except the person who will pay it through his or her nose. Such phenomena have become vicious and inevitable practices during election.
Election will also open up golden opportunities to voters, well wishers, sympathizers for making quick bucks since this rare opportunity comes only once in the long dry five years of waiting. It is indeed a rewarding time for them as they realize that a vote or a voice of either support or threat is worthy and that life is not a complete waste after all. For many voters it is a time of opportunities to receive, eat, drink and be merry but for many contestants it is a harrowing time.
Election in our state is essentially fought more through the maneuvering skills of the candidate, the size of the village and the clan and above all, money and muscle power but comparatively rely less upon the ideologies and the party manifesto that usually receives the back seat during election. It is not the quality but the quantity of the electioneering that matters most in the given situation. The issue is more on spending, less on serving.
Money in the state is now in active circulation. Shops and hotels are doing brisk business. Automobile workshops are operational round the clock repairing vehicles to ferry enthusiastic workers of sorts to and fro. The average expenditure per candidate during this election will run into crores of rupees. Hidden under the façade of decorated platforms through which well written or extempore speeches are being delivered calling upon the people to rise up to the occasion, on the ground, it is money that will be doing most of the talking. It is indeed a frightening picture that defies a solution.
It is time for all right thinking Nagas to ask some serious questions. Is this a kind of election that we want? What type of Naga leaders do we need today? The answer is not too far to seek. Nagaland today is desperately in need of clean, honest, capable and God fearing leaders in leading our people to a better and a brighter future. We need a society that is loved but not feared. May the right thinking electorate exercise their franchise playfully and conscientiously that only quality leaders are elected. May the almighty God with all His wisdom grant us this wish.
