ET Ezung
In a couple of days or so Nagaland will hold a general election to 14th Legislative Assembly. This must be so as it is mandated by Election Rules for the tenure of present Assembly expires on March 12, 2023. What is apparent is the good number of political parties has also made their forays into the State’s electoral process.
Be that as it may, the election will be held and whatever the outcome, the new Government must call for an immediate solution to the protracted Naga political issue. This must be solely determined by the outcome of talks which the Centre (Government of India) and the Naga indigenous to present day Nagaland State since integration of contiguous Naga-inhabited areas in Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have been ruled out.
Regarding contiguous Naga-inhabited areas in what is now Myanmar, this has international ramification and so requires a separate approach by Naga stakeholders backed by Government of India through dialogue and diplomacy.
In this context, we can uphold the resolution reached on October 31, 2019 in the best interest of the people of Nagaland.
Another point one would like to highlight is the issue or even non-issue of tickets to aspiring candidates by the various political parties. Of late, there have been announcements/notifications in the local media to the effect that certain units of various political parties have resigned en-masse and declared supporting a candidate from another party or even an Independent.
Whatever be the reasons of aspirants not being issued a party ticket we need to ponder the statement in this context by a Prime Minister of Singapore during a conference. Seeing the developmental activities/progress of the country everyone appreciated and asked a comment from the PM of Singapore. In this reply, he praised high of the members of Parliament/Ministers and said that their fathers and grand-fathers were all good leaders.
“At the time of elections when one asked for party ticket, I examined/verified the past histories of their fathers and grandfathers and allotted the tickets to those generations.”
“This way, my country is doing well in everything. Also, the pay of MPs/Ministers are sky high, that’s why they don’t involve/indulge in corruption.”
In a not unrelated issue, we Nagas have been blessed with the type of land in which our ancestors had settled long, long ago amidst abundant flora and fauna plus mineral and other natural resources. In this book ‘Defeat into Victory’ British Field Marshal Sir William Slim who commanded the Allied Forces in the then Burma (now Myanmar) campaign wrote: “The character of a people is defined by the types of land they inhabited for the last 400-500 years.”
To cut the chase, Nagas in general although former head-hunters embraced Christianity whose Sesqui-Centennial (150 years) was celebrated in December 2022. However, the qualities of hard work, honesty and adherence to defined traditional, cultural and social norms including hospitality have basically remained the same. We are fortunate too, that major calamities like earthquakes, have been spared us so far although as a sub-Himalayan region, the perception is always there because of climate change crisis also. Let us, therefore, fervently pray and hope that our majority Naga Christian community (of whichever de-nomination) will this time elect committed leaders and preferably of a younger generation to which the older one will gracefully acknowledge. Still, it is imperative that the new Naga dispensation must endeavour to resolve the long pending solution to the Naga Political issue as early as possible (if not forthwith) in the interest of all concerned.
Kuknalim
