Governance in Nagaland for the past so many years and decades have suffered gravely on account of our failure to adhere to rules and regulation. Here we cannot just blame only our politicians but even the common people have this habit to seek rewards, appointments or jobs through illegal means. We give a damn to the rule of law and instead we encourage the politicians or the bureaucrats to ‘bend the rules’. And in the absence of proper checks and balances the problem gets accentuated. The growing number of agitations, court cases and other kind of public grievances being brought out against the government is a sad reflection of the regularity with which we break the law. The continuing lawlessness within our government system has created a bottleneck of sorts, putting roadblocks towards achieving efficiency and optimum performance in policy making, developmental goals or decision making. That governance has indeed come to a standstill was evident from the near total chaos created as a result of protest and agitation from different section of society. At present we have a group of aggrieved teachers on indefinite hunger strike while another set of people—entrepreneurs are also agitating against the government’s failure. Although it may not be in the public domain, however there are also several court cases pending against the government from various individual, groups or association. Because of such unresolved problems, sadly for the government too, a lot of effort, time and money is wasted in fending off such mess when infact the government has other priorities to look after. Perhaps it is high time for those in authority to realize the kind of trouble or mess the system can get into if we do not follow the rules and regulations. What the government in Nagaland (irrespective of party in power) really need now is stability, order and efficiency. And for this we must adhere to the rule of law and not bend rules as per our whims and fancies. Perhaps the genesis of the present mess in the School Education Department can be traced back to years of lawlessness—wanton misuse of power and bending the rules. Whether we are learning from our past mistakes or not, that could well determine the efficacy or otherwise of our government system.
Perhaps we need to bring in here the simple understanding of political rule. While we need to acknowledge the fact that the Chief Minister and Ministers are elected by the people and thereby carry the mandate to run the government, nevertheless this mandate does not allow them to misuse or abuse their power of governance. Because of costly elections and the corrupt system that is inherited, Ministers perhaps carry the impression that ‘his will be done’ and that the end justifies the means. Such degeneration of political values has compounded the problem. We should also not forget that in a State like Nagaland with its limited resources, there is acute competition for sharing of benefits and thereby creating an in-built impetus for corruption. Sociological factors like kinship and patron-client relationships further generate and reproduce corruption through networks of nepotism, patronage and dependency. Further, cultural practices life custom of gift giving with the expectation of reciprocal rewards, something which tends to spill over into the institutionalised administration as well. Some measures that needs to be taken up include strengthening the vigilance body-law enforcing agencies and to give them autonomy so that they do not remain under govt control. The present menace of illegality or corruption does not have any instant solution. It cannot be removed by a miracle or a gimmick. It demands societal intervention, a long struggle to cleanse the public life and of course some concrete legal and executive measures. And add to this, perhaps the rule of law and not the politician’s whims and fancies should prevail. We need to bring a sense of healing, order and probity to our wounded, unruly and corrupt system.
