Dimapur, May 28 (MExN): Assuring to speak the truth as a person of age, Maharashtra Governor Dr. SC Jamir today said that in Nagaland there is a ‘famine of truth’. People are afraid to speak the truth even though they know it, he echoed.
Speaking as the chief guest of the silver jubilee celebrations of the Chumukedima Ao Senso Telongjem today at the NAP police auditorium, Jamir said people – be it the church or even civil organizations – are afraid to speak the truth even if they hear it or feel it in their hearts. Even the organisations in the state fail to speak the truth about the different illnesses afflicting them, he said.
Asserting that the state of Nagaland was created by the people of Nagaland and not by foreigners, Jamir said other races were advancing rapidly and that the Nagas with a vision to be at par with other advancing communities decided to create the state of Nagaland. He maintained that the state of Nagaland was created by the Nagas themselves not by “bendanger” (foreigners).
However, the governor said, the present state of Nagaland with its small population of about 2.2 million and a little over 16 thousand square kilometres of land is “over-administered” with its eleven districts, the many ADC headquarters and countless EAC outposts.
Jamir maintained that even government officials have no work to do as their jurisdiction of work has become very small with a huge number of administrative blocks. In this regard, the governor asserted that the ministers and MLAs in Nagaland do not think and work for the future. They are only concerned about the present.
‘There are only a few who think for the future,’ he said. He also cautioned that a “financial emergency” is coming to Nagaland as all the works in the state are being implemented with loan money which has to be repaid one day or the other.
“Unless we prepare today, you cannot talk about future tomorrow,” Jamir said drawing allegory that the ‘mess we have created today does not indicate a bright future for the Nagas’. “Tomorrow is doomed because today is doomed,” he said. Reminding that the time of ‘drinking and gambling’ has gone, Jamir said the time to hurry, advance and compete has come.
The governor reminded that the world has become very competitive but the Nagas have still not developed that competitive spirit. On this, he encouraged putting to focus the youths through education.
Jamir also noted the issue of bogus appointments in the education department and said the vile culture is not only breaking the educational foundation of the youths, but also exploiting the society and robbing money off the public exchequer. The state of affairs in Nagaland is not good at present, he said.
The Maharashtra governor also said that during the 1951 “plebiscite”, the Naga people put their thumb impressions attesting their support for Naga unity. On this, he challenged the younger generation especially the youths, to carefully ponder whether the wishes of forefathers during the “plebiscite” are being realised today or not.
Besides that, he said that in Nagaland people play the politics of, what he termed, the politics of “villageism”. Jamir said a leader during elections is elected or defeated through the support or ‘non-support’ of villages.
He urged the people not to sell their votes. If they sell off their votes, which is their God-given right to elect a leader, voters would be left with no rights at all. Making a comparison with the Biblical saying that a blind person cannot lead another, Jamir advised that “in politics if you are led by a blind person then you will fall off a cliff.”
