Veroli Zhimo
It’s almost time for another election in Nagaland, when voters get to decide who represents them for the next four years.
In many parts of the state, the political campaigns have already begun full swing. There are several groups of party workers flitting from one party to another, and discreet clan, colony, or village level meetings are reportedly being held to decide which candidate they will support.
Under the Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer's establishment, the first level checking of Electronic Voter Machine (EVMs) & Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) began on October 11 and will continue till October 19. The wheels are in motion.
Amid this spurt of activity which will only intensify over the next few months, there are a several pertinent issues that each voter needs to think over before casting their votes; Because there is no excuse for anyone to be unaware of the stakes in the coming elections.
In the last four years, the Naga collective has witnessed several instances of misgovernance and injustice at various levels.
The Naga collective includes exhausted medical frontliners working in poorly-equipped government healthcare units amid an extremely contagious pandemic. Cancer patients, the terminally ill patients worrying if they can afford to seek treatment and healthcare in other parts of the country because the services in the state are mostly rudimentary.
Teachers, government employees, unpaid for several months at a stretch, left to fend for themselves at the risk of being penalized if they seek temporary employment to make ends meet.
They are the indigenous people declared 'hindrances to development projects' because they assert their ancestral rights on their land and resources.
They are the youths who hesitate to dream of university education because government institutions are far too few, and their parents cannot afford private institutions. They are the youths who spend hours on end on social media platforms venting their frustrations, doom scrolling, because nobody seems to be listening.
They are the daily commuters who travel on potholed roads that have been under perpetual state of construction.
They are the breadwinners endlessly taxed by parallel governments to sustain a political movement that has reached a state of disconnect among the masses.
They are the job hunters whose prospects have dwindled because investors from other countries are horrified by the government’s financial records and the 'disturbed area' tag, and are shying away.
The Naga collective is all these – and more. The difference now is, with which candidate will they identify? And what does that candidate make them feel about themselves, about tomorrow?
Can they look them in the eye with pride – the frontliners, the teachers, the sick, the students, the youths, the indigenous brethren, the commuter, the breadwinner, the job seeker – and say they are too tired of hoping, so any false promises and pretense of leadership is fine by them?
Or can they put their arm around their shoulders and say that in the next few months of hustings, every Naga would rise up from learned helplessness and be his or her own hero?
The main character in any election has to be the voter. Every citizen must be convinced that his or her voice will count and the Naga people must wield power and realise that mediocrity and corruption can no longer be the norm.
The Naga voter has a real chance of changing the course of his or her life and this state with the vote that will be cast very soon. The only question is whether they have the will to make that happen.
Comments can be sent to vzhimolimi@gmail.com.
