Joel Nillo Kath
The rejoinder to my article “Nowhere To Run” (5th June) by one Shillumar Ao, Associate Press Secretary, NPF making some ridiculous conjectures does not merit attention but I’m constrained to reply lest the tendency in Nagaland to silence critics through personal attacks and even physical threats gets out of hand. Granted, sycophancy is part and parcel of politics but the way it has manifested in Nagaland is shameful, to say the least. The ‘deep investigative reporting’ and the subsequent exposé of my background to Naga people by Shillumar Ao is worthy of a Pulitzer Prize “Award of the Year for Investigative Reporting.” Yes, my father lost elections 3 times and I failed in my attempt to start a newspaper too (poor Congress people and now the party is reduced to mere 8 seats in NLA, tsk,tsk). May I also add for the writer’s satisfaction that I utterly and miserably failed to crack IAS in all my three attempts! The worst writer is the unimaginative writer. Shillumar’s statement “the Hornbill festival is one of the most popular intellectual properties of the Naga people” is moronic and belies his designation. Hornbill Festival has nothing to do with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) which is a matter of the “intangible”, such as music. Googl-ing Wikipedia for answers on IPR should clear all the mists clouding his grey cells but it’s clear such concepts are beyond his league.
Ergo, when I talked about “Prostituting Hornbill” -any school boy would know- I wasn’t talking about Hornbill Festival per se, much less critical of it. In effect, I was talking about the tendency of our leaders to showcase Hornbill Festival and Roadshows inappropriately but frequently at the cost of governance. Prostituting Hornbill does not mean Hornbill is a prostitute! Therefore, the sheer stupid inference that I’ve insulted Hornbill Festival and by extension every Naga people is a silly attempt at vainglory. The writer should adjust his bearings. The phrase “Prostituting Hornbill” can be best understood when we understand that there’s a time for festivals and there’s a time for serious affairs of the state such as addressing Mokokchung bandh, Foothill Road, Rongmei recognition issue, assault on Nagas at Mariani and civil society initiative against unabated UG taxation, etc. No politician occupies such a high moral pedestal that he is beyond reproach. Politicians belong to public domain and criticism is the hazard of the job.
Sidestepping real issues and tagging silly names to belittle opponents with terms such as “Defeated Candidate”, “Frustrated Candidate” “Frustrated Mind”, “Rejected by the People”, etc., by sycophants trying to endear themselves to their bosses does not wish real issues away. The danger with long innings of any government is that along the way, one invariably picks up half-baked talents and dimwits and when the usual nice sounding designations are thrown in, these people strut around like roosters in all their glory. Shillumar, next time, throw some Heavy stuffs instead of punching with kids gloves.
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