It is somewhat of a coincidence to write an editorial of this nature exactly a year after The Morung Express had strongly commented on the assassination of former Director General of Police Hesso Mao in the State Capital by unidentified gunmen (latter turning out to be NSCN (K) cadres) on November 8, 2005. One year on after the incident, justice for Nagaland’s former top-most police officer is yet to be delivered. For the police establishment in the State and the Home Ministry, it is a matter of regret that they have failed to bring the killers of Late Hesso to book. In such a grim scenario where rule of law has stopped working, what justice can Late Hovizol Puyo get. It is another coincidence that both Late Hesso and Late Hovizol served the State police force. It is shuttering to imagine how many orphaned families, wives and children there is today who have lost their near and dear ones to ‘unidentified assailants’ and their ilk who continue to roam the streets freely only to bury another victim into the ground.
The big question is when the State government has failed to achieve anything in regard to the case of Lt Hesso, can it do any better for Lt Hovizol. It is not surprising that the State government has responded in the way it has done and the Visewema villagers and the Southern Angami Public Organization (SAPO) have every reason to feel aggrieved at this silence on the part of the authorities till date to bring the criminals to justice. Whether even the memorandum addressed to the Nagaland Home Minister demanding appropriate action within a period of fifteen days will work as a tonic remains to be seen. Before public anger boils over, the concerned Home Minister should legitimize his own position and take control of the situation by setting up a special police team as demanded by SAPO to thoroughly investigate the case. It would only be appropriate to also demand public disclosure of progress made in the case relating to the brutal assassination of the State’s former DGP.
For civil society groups and NGOs, the time has come to critically address the problem of violence and gun culture and its impact on Naga society. Today we live on the dangerous notion that ‘Might is Right’ and that power flows from the barrel of a gun. We are not far fetched from becoming a gun wielding and violence ridden society in which the power of human reasoning is giving way to what the 17th Century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes described; the ‘state of nature’ or the state of men without civil society, a state of continual warfare. Addressing this critical problem requires urgent attention of the government and NGOs.
As far as the basis on which the question of law and order has to be understood, any elected government worth its salt has a duty to effectively put in place and implement the rule of law. Failure to do so will naturally put question mark on the very legitimacy of State’s power to enforce its authority. If this government is sincere that it is here not just to occupy the chair but to perform its due responsibility, then this is an opportune time to demonstrate its authority. The DAN government’s political credibility is at stake and the sooner it realizes this (rather than denying it) the better it would be for its future prospects or else it would simply mean the hijacking of political authority by the laws of the jungle where nothing is right except might.
