By Moa Jamir The poll bugle has already been sounded in Nagaland. It is perceptible in air with the increased activeness of our politicians and straightening of the political alignment in recent times. The first die, however, was cast more concretely this morning, when readers were greeted with ‘unanimous’ declaration by 5 village councils to support two particular candidates respectively in the upcoming State Assembly election to be held tentatively in 2018. Other may follow suit in the coming days. Prima facie, the decisions taken by the concerned village councils is representative of all its populace and one cannot comment on that since it is their prerogative. Coming close on the heels of the Clean Election Campaign (CEC) called by Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC); however, the declaration has caught many offguard and piqued. The apex body of the dominant Baptist Churches in Nagaland launched the CEC under the theme “The impact of our birthright,’ on July 22, 2016 declaring that the “Election is a spiritual issue for Christians.” The campaign has gained momentum and expects to cover all districts with the objective of urging the citizens to stop corrupt practices of electioneering in Nagaland. Concurrently, a popular Naga social media platform with over 78000 tech savvy members has been successfully running a campaign of its own besides the state machinery and many others. Ironically, these villages belong to a particular range in Mokokchung district, which in September made a pioneering ‘pledge’ on a ‘Clean Election Campaign sensitization cum consultative meeting’ held in September. Organised by the range apex students’ body, the participants included village council members, church leaders, women organisations, youth, GBs and DBs where they “unanimously adopted” a thirteen point resolution to be pursued for clean elections. Among others, the resolution includes not to practice “proxy voting during election” or sale of “one’s votes for money.” ‘Village declaration’ was not one of them and under this technicality, the villages might have declared their candidates. The ‘signing of pledges’ or for that matter, its misuse and manipulation were prominently highlighted in a consultative meeting in April organised by State Election Commission, Nagaland, but the status quo still exist in many places. This is the biggest stumbling block and litmus test for any clean election campaign yet. This is not to claim that these campaigns have failed or become redundant but it goes to show a Brobdingnagian task that lies ahead. Any campaign needs to recognise the existing dichotomy between the theory and the praxis. Politics has its own flavour of distinctiveness and nowhere it is more exemplified than in Nagaland. Apart from the personal configuration, tribal, clan and village dynamics among others play a huge part. The presence of non-state actors also complicates the matters. Consequently, edifices of modern democracy like governance, transparency and accountability, anti-incumbency etc are put in a backburner. It affects each level of the electoral politics, having distinct intricacies and complexities. To be fair, the NBCC clean election’s pledge card contain, among others, not to force anyone with the “collective decision” of clan, Khel, village, range or clubs etc and to keep secret voting a personal matter. When will it become a reality?
