Moa Jamir
The resultant cycle of violence that erupted aftermath the February 6 tragic killing of a couple near Shamator is both unfortunate and has ominous implication for the Naga Society if holistic course corrections are not implemented earnestly. It also vividly depicts our fraught societal fabric resulting out of insecurity and anxieties that often culminates into collective unrest and outburst.
Since then, cringing and unfortunate stories about the people caught in both side of the conflict are coming out in the media. Innocent school children uprooted from their homes, students too traumatise to sit for their exams, homes and other entities burned to ashes and terrified and distraught citizens internally displaced.
Most unfortunately, another generation a deeply prejudiced and distraught cohorts by such event are created perpetuating the situating infinitely.
In all this, we are witnessing strange phenomena, which hitherto were largely restricted to news media or a topic in our academic curricula. We have become “refugee” in our own State. We are witnessing the “Internally displaced persons (IDPs), which the United Nations Human Rights Commission considers as the world’s most vulnerable people.
For unlike refugees, who to some extend found sanctuary in some other places outside their country, IDPs have remained inside their home countries even though they might have fled for similar reasons - armed conflict, generalized violence, human rights violations - as refugees. Other civilians rendered homeless by natural disasters are also considered as IDPs.
“IDPs legally remain under the protection of their own government – even though that government might be the cause of their flight” according to UNHRC implying that it aggravates their vulnerability.
According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), at the end of 2014 it was estimated there were 38 million IDPs worldwide, the highest level since 1989, the first year for which global statistics on IDPs are available and 19.3 Million by natural disaster. At least 616,140 of them were from India.
If the ongoing conflict continues unabated, soon the Nagas might also become a part of statistics we have so far seen only on TV or read of.
Belligerent parties over-generalising and pointing allegations – proven or otherwise – have not helped the cause at all, but rather aggravates the situation. Allegation and counter allegation, ultimatum from contending parties are always a recurring theme in such situations.
Squeezed between contesting imperatives but limited by its apparent incompetency, the Government of Nagaland is but a mere bystander.
When conflicts break out in Nagaland, information is the first casualty stated a news report. ‘We are fuelled by rumours with unmanageable consequences. We need to device an open, calibrated and objective mechanism to share information at times of conflict’ a senior retired administrator was thus quoted in media.
“In most states, even in neighbouring Manipur, the State appoints a spokesperson to round up information for the day to be released to the media,” runs a news item in The Morung Express pointing to the visible reluctance and lack of government initiative to that end.
Limited by resources, the State media mostly restrict themselves to “arm chair journalism” and “press releases” to augment news report.
Non-partisan ombudsman or mechanism to look into the affairs would offer the requisite policy inputs to deal with the situation comprehensively. Temporary measures in the form of special investigation team, judicial commission or such entities are not helpful, if the government does not act on it.
While for security concerns, some contents are withheld for general public scrutiny, it will not hurt the government if the gists of the findings are made available.
We as a society must also stop generalising every single incident as a collective action, whatever the case might be. A cohesive society lies not in one-upmanship but accommodating diverse sets of narratives.
The State may do well to act on it decisively bringing all the stakeholders into confidence. Else, we will be confronting with the situation for a long time and staring at long line of ‘refugees’ in our own yard.
For any displacement comment, drop a line to moajamir@live.com
