During April this year while addressing the joint celebration of the Aoleang and Monyü festival of the Konyak and Phom Nagas respectively, at The Heritage in Kohima under the aegis of Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Union of Kohima (ENPUK), Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio expressed disagreement with certain organizations and communities who claim about being either ‘advanced’ or “backward.” The CM reminded that an area may be ‘backward’ but peoples are not. This is an interesting statement in the context of the Naga people’s discourse on ‘backwardness and underdevelopment’. Perhaps the CM was being nice to the people of Eastern Nagaland when he said that an area may be backward but not the people. But the question is whether this is really so. We should understand that one cannot separate people from the land and its resource. To say that area is backward but people are not is therefore somewhat misleading. Offcourse if we look at the creamy layer—those within the backward area people who may have benefited through different means and avenues—there could be some truth in the statement of the CM. However this section of people will be a tiny minority and majority of people in the backward region of Eastern Nagaland are indeed lacking in many aspect of development. In recent years with better means of transport and communication, all of us are probably witness to the large number of people from Eastern Nagaland including children who are compelled by poverty and hardship to work as domestic help in many Naga households in places like Kohima, Dimapur or Mokokchung. This is the reality of backwardness which cannot be ignored. And if people are not backward then why do we have the reservation policy of the government or the Department of Underdevelopment Area? All such measures are obviously with the objective to bring people in these areas at par with the other advanced Naga tribes. Areas ought to be developed but the focus should be on the people—benefits must accrue to them.
In general it seems to be that when it comes to the problem and question of Eastern Nagaland, our political classes seem to be quite happy to take blame for the shortcomings of the past. In fact during the last Budget session of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA), cutting across party lines, our elected representatives spoke about collective failures of successive State governments. The Chief Minister while reaching out to the ENPO on behalf of the NLA also spoke about ‘collectively falling short of people’s expectation and collectively apologizing’. While the (ENPO) people may forgive our political parties and classes for past mistakes, the more important point for our ‘collective’ leaders, MLAs etc. is not to forget and repeat the same mistakes over and over again. While it is easy for our political class to speak of collective failure, perhaps they need to learn about accountability and how to serve the people with more sincerity and honesty. If we can do this then perhaps we will not be speaking about backwardness of areas of peoples. And this lesson is not only for elected leaders from Eastern Nagaland but others as well. We are more and more looking at self enrichment rather than serving our respective constituency and people. As someone holding political office we are more interested in building our fortunes in say Dimapur—the commercial hub or Kohima—the State Capital. This is true of all politicians irrespective of party or ideology. If only every one of the sixty MLAs in our State were sincere and honest in developing their respective constituencies, perhaps Nagaland will be a better place to live in. If our elected leaders are not sincere, the day may not be too far off when we could witness more and more areas and peoples becoming backward.
