Dimapur, May 4 (MExN): The Naga Rising (TNR) on Wednesday criticized the Chief Minister of Nagaland Neiphiu Rio over his purportedly ‘anti democratic’ remark that “politics was best left to politicians” at an event held in Dimapur.
Describing it as “the worst way possible to demean the dignity and self-respect of the entire population of Nagaland,” The Naga Rising, in a press release, stated that “the Chief Minister’s anti-democratic remark not only undermines the intellect of the common citizens of Nagaland but also insults the chair he occupies.”
It lamented that “the leader of the UDA government - that has already disregarded the mandate of the people by forming an opposition-less government - has forgotten who elected his government to power in the first place.”
TNR stated that the Chief Minister had urged the people to focus on boosting the state economy rather than focusing too much on politics, forgetting that the two cannot be separated “because bad politics produces bad economics.” It is the role of the people to bring about good politics so as to ensure that there is good economics, it added.
Stating that it is pertinent to ask what the Chief Minister meant by the remark, TNR posed: “Should the electorates silently accept what the politicians say or do, without the right to voice out for their rights? Should politicians decide what is right and wrong for the people with the people having no right to question the decision?”
The recognition of the free will of every individual human being is one of the most significant developments in the evolution of human society, TNR stated, adding that every individual is endowed with the cognitive ability to make their political choices. “In other words, what we call democracy,” it asserted.
In this context, it sought to remind the Chief Minister “that politics is too important to be left to the politicians,” as remarked by the French statesman Charles de Gaulle.
“In this day and age when we celebrate freedom and democratic rights of every human being, such a condescending attitude as demonstrated by the Chief Minister deserves to be condemned by every right thinking citizen,” it said, adding that the Naga people need “visionary leaders who can take us forward, not self-assuming autocrats who would take us back to the stone-age.”
