With announcement of elections due in March 5 for Nagaland, the Election Commission of India has brought into effect the mandatory Model Code of Conduct for the period leading up to the polls. This Code is equally applicable to politicians, political parties, State and Union Government and is served with the purpose of ensuring free and fair polls irrespective of any other factor. As such, it is important to create a level playing field so that everyone who has a right to contest is able to do so on an equal footing and that the public is also able to assess the merits of the issues and leadership quality presented before them. As such the State Election Officer under the direction of the Election Commission must ensure strict adherence to this Code both in letter and in spirit so that there is equality of opportunity for everyone including individual leaders or political parties to express the merit of their cases based on issues and not on other extraneous forces like money or muscle power. In this regard, the media will also be called upon to remain alert so that it does not in any way contravene on the poll code by becoming a tool of political showmanship and propaganda.
Likewise, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) has also issued its own code of conduct appealing to all the candidates, party workers, village councils, church leaders and the public for maintaining free, fair, just and accountable election in 2008. The Church guideline is equally important though it may not have the force of legal injunction like the EC’s guidelines. Nevertheless it should be taken as a moral sanction and meaningfully applied from the Christian perspective of maintaining moral ethics. This will serve the purpose of encouraging everyone to be honest and responsible citizens. Further, as the Church has explained quite succinctly, voting should be seen as a “divine-birth right” and everyone has a duty to participate in choosing his or her rightful representative. People should not remain passive but be active participants as it is said eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and the public must learn to protect their sovereign right to choose and decide of their own free will.
Similarly, the Church guideline on proxy voting as “a sin against God and fellowmen” should be taken as a serious challenge to one’s integrity as a Christian. Another important guideline adds that the Church will not permit the use of the pulpit by any politician or its party workers prior to the election. This is a welcome code and should be adhered to by the different local Churches. It will however be interesting to see how far the respective local Churches in Nagaland can abide by this particular code because in the past, Church platform has been used for electioneering purposes which is completely unacceptable. The guidelines to deter the use of alcohol and establishment of youth camps are of fundamental concern because the use of proxy voting and muscle power during elections emanates from such places for which the politicians and political parties are to be blamed. It goes without saying that the code of conduct issued one by the Election Commission and the other by the Church should be treated as two sides of the same coin—the legal and the moral both necessary to act as a bulwark against human frailty.
