Imkong Walling
In about 3-4 months, Nagaland will see another election to the state Legislative Assembly. The trend, election after election, has been that the correlated outpouring of passions begins to show itself, typically after the announcement of dates to culminate with a bang on polling day.
Presently, it feels like the proverbial quiet before the storm, while seemingly confidential, yet frenzied, politicking are on at the grassroots/villages, supposedly far beyond hearing range, juxtaposed by verbal appeals for upholding the ideals of democracy for a clean and fair elections.
The upcoming 2023 Nagaland Assembly polls would perhaps be the second, in the history of the state, to prominently feature a parallel campaign espousing ‘Clean Elections.’ But if the previous election in 2018 was anything to go by, the campaign has found hardly any takers, which brings forth the question, “Why didn’t it have the anticipated impact?” The answer to that would be quite obvious to all, only that hardly anyone has taken the initiative to strike where it matters.
It is a known fact that a vote comes with a price tag and it is also known that the thirst for power and greater wealth blinds the poll contenders into parting with fat cash to get elected. It is known that the village authorities and even tribal bodies, under the guise of citizens’ conclaves, wield immense influence to affect results, besides determining who gets to contest.
It happens in a system, supposedly peopled by tithe-giving devout Christians, but where there is no clear separation between right and wrong. The people tend to view “corruption” only through a religious lens, which though justified, gets diluted when the same religious people finds means to self atone. Everyone is fearful of “sinning” but of what good is a God-fearing person, who has no principles? In this world of institutionalised and misplaced sense of morality, the concept of justice and equality, which serve as the basis for democratic elections, gets overlooked.
The problem apparently lies with the people. But then again, proxy voting occurs despite the insistence on Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC), while it is known that the poll contenders declare under oath, falsified asset/cash holdings, which further brings to the fore a seriously ignored aspect of the electioneering process— enforcement.
While all fingers get pointed at the electorate for all the wrongs in the election system, and admittedly so, toothless enforcement has as much to blame. Enforcement, which is supposed to check any form of unfair practice, stops short at declaration of dates and the accompanying model code of conduct. Neutral poll observers get deployed by the election authority but these officials barely ever prefer to intervene, merely serving as emblematic officials only there at the venue to append signatures on papers.
This has been the trend in many elections past and it is expected the upcoming elections would be no different. The sorry of state of attitude is anything but reassuring but the human mind has the cognitive ability to transform from negativity to positivity. Prove the pessimistic projection wrong.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
