Moa Jamir
On August 18, the Government of Nagaland (GoN) has convened a consultative meeting with the Tribal Hohos of Nagaland in Kohima. The meeting was in pursuance of the decision of the Cabinet in its meeting held on August 10, the State Government informed in a notification released via the Directorate of Information and Public Relations.
A total of 14 Tribal Hohos were invited to the ‘August’ gathering to discuss four pertinent issues: a) Mediation between Zeliang and Sumi tribes regarding boundary demarcation of Peren and Dimapur districts; b) Women reservation in ULBs, c) Naga Tribunals for adjudication as per Naga Customary Law and d) Issue of appointment of Gaon Buras (GBs) in urban areas.
“While this is interesting and about time, the irony is not lost. There is not a single woman in the so-called consultative meet,” to discuss the issue of women reservation in ULBs, the Rising People’s Party has stated on Monday, apart from questioning the exclusion of the Kuki and Kachari tribes, the other two completing the officially recognised 16 tribes in Nagaland.
Many others have raised concerns regarding the issue. Apart from the issue of ULBs, it is disquieting that the State Government presumed it convenient to exclude from consultation nearly 1 half of the State’s population. Grossly insensitive, the action reveals the perpetuation of accustomed machismo politics in the Naga society.
In doing so, the State Government, at the outset, is indicating that the ‘Gentleman’s Club’ has exclusive ‘right’ to adjudicate during conflict and bring about ‘peace.’ Secondly, in the Naga’s scheme of things, the women’s rule in adjudication as per Naga Customary Law is near zero by default. In addition, they are presumed to be inconsequential in discussing the issue of political decision making in urban areas. This extension of rigid village polity to other areas without consideration of the other half of the population reeks of smugness to carry forward the status quo.
Inclusion of women in decision-making or policy-making, without doubt, is the most important stated issue on the table, when gauged from the point of their non-inclusion at the consultative meeting.
However, the contentious issue of ULBs cannot be decided logically by discussing the same with the congregation of ‘like-minded’ gentlemen, who have had been opposing the reservation via a legislative mechanism in the first place. Change of mindset, if any, is can be engendered if the views from the other side are deliberated upon, instead of consciously or subconsciously relegating them to private sphere.
The fault lies not only with the State Government, but it is the manifestation and extension of entrenched institutional set-up as well as polity of predominantly patriarchal society to governance and politics.
Did it ever cross the mind of those at the helms of the affairs? Most probably not; and unless this mindset is obliterated, the drive towards a genuine egalitarian Naga society remains mere rhetoric. It will be achieved by empowering nearly half-section of the population to participate and exist cohesively in decision-making or policy-making processes, and not by perpetuating the ‘Gentleman’s Club.’
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