N N Lotha
Founder President, Republican Labor Party
"We need Role Models but not Imposters"
In Nagaland State, the Politicians play politics not because they can do something for the people of the State but just because they have to capture the Political Power and serve their selfish personal interests especially to avail all the limited Economic Opportunities. When election time comes, the people are least bothered about the educational qualifications and intellectual abilities of the candidates but rather they will enquire about how much money the candidates can spend in the electoral process to buy votes or hire criminals for booth capturing if they can't buy the voters. So the first criterion is money and the second criterion is their affinity with the Underworld Dons or Criminals. Besides these two criteria, they must also have enough money to feed the supporters daily for at least a month or two during the campaign process with the meals of their choices and sufficient alcoholic drinks.
This minimum prerequisite will discourage any sensible person from contesting elections of any kind because these are all illegal and also morally wrong. This basic minimum monetary and materials requirements combined with the use of muscle power sets the Election Platform easy and ready for the people belonging to the lowest rung of the society such as the School and College Dropouts, Below Average People those who can't pass Competitive Examinations, Born Losers and Corrupt Bureaucrats and Technocrats those who have illegally amassed wealth from Public Offices while in service.
Now the question is, what happens during and after the elections? First of all, this is a game of winner takes it all and the losers get totally victimized and destroyed in all walks of life. The candidates many a times use not only their money but also of family members, relatives and friends besides borrowings from local market at very high rate of monthly interest ranging from (10-25)% which is equivalent to (120-300)% per annum. In this process, the losers families get victimized and destroyed completely especially in their material aspects of life and never to recover again in life except in a few cases.
Now at this, the sadistic winners will rejoice like the one who had just won billion dollars lottery jackpot as they will soon start grabbing all the opportunities in the portfolios allocated to them. Since there are no other economic opportunities in the State except the Grand-in-Aid Government which is the lone source of money, the elected Members will grab all Government Contract Works and Supply Orders of various items to the Government Departments besides giving away all the employment opportunities to their family members, relatives and supporters, thus creating gross injustice, favouritism and nepotism in the society. Others have neither chance of availing the economic opportunities nor the employment opportunities from the government sectors. Thus, the political power and their official positions are totally abused, misused and reduced to nothing more than serving personal interests and meeting family needs. In some cases, they do give away some of the Work Orders, Supply Orders and Government Jobs to others by taking huge amount of bribes which they usually called it commission mainly to increase their family bank balances.
The political power and official positions are totally abused at the expense of the whole society and are misused like fully guarded personal properties where the family members of the politicians and some top bureaucrats alone have all the opportunities to avail them and sell them at will. This situation of Socio-Economic injustice scenario is compared to as the Kitchen Garden Politics. It is a well known fact that in the kitchen gardens, only the family members alone have all the rights and privileges to use the produces to the exclusions of others but at the same time they are at liberty to sell them or give away to others in some cases.
Therefore, the analogy drawn here to compare the present political scenario of Nagaland State to that of the Kitchen Garden seems quite appropriate. This is the state of affairs at the moment and the general public is confused and helpless like a man marooned in the middle of the sea without compass and rudder on a sinking boat just waiting for the tide to sweep him away at any moment to become part of the unknown mystery for good.
So, it has created a kind of Socio-Economic situation whereby Revolution seems to be inevitable and the only solution to bring about an end to this complex problem. May be very soon the situation will explode and sooner or later the people will start to fight for their rights and restore social order and finally claim their rightful places in the society.
The major evils created by this Kitchen Garden Politics is the gross injustice inflicted in the society where free and fair competition has been pushed aside, thus nullifying the very important Democratic Ideal "Right to Equality". It has brought about lots of discontentment amongst the educated youth and many deserving youths have been denied their rightful positions in the society and in some cases they have been compelled to indulge themselves in many unwanted Anti-Social Activities. It is certainly creating lots of Socio-Economic problems mainly for the youth such as inclination towards taking up militancy as another career option for economic sustenance and social position. Besides the above, many young boys of marriageable age groups are not able to get marry on time because of economic insecurities, and thus majority of the girls are not getting opportunities to get marry at the right age and on many an occasion they are forced to indulge themselves into prostitution with the rich politicians, bureaucrats, contractors and businessmen who are already married and having their own families. This Socio-Economic evil is weakening the family institution of the Naga Society and at the same time resulting in many family break-ups. The youths indulging themselves in smuggling of arms, drugs and narcotics to earn fast cash has also become prevalent and is also posing another danger in the State and all these add problems to the whole society and the Socio-Economic situations are becoming more and more complex each day.
Therefore, the people have no choice but are just waiting for the ignition spark of the Socio-Economic Revolution with the hope to bring about major Paradigm Shift in the Society in the immediate future.
Let alone time tell by itself. The youth must know that in the battlefield, "Only the brave ones will bring victory but the cowards will shy away from confronting and facing the common enemies".
Change, Change and Change must come soon!
But we must also ensure ourselves that it is for the betterment of our society mainly to restore the Diminishing Brightness of the Gems and Jewels of our Cultural Foundations - Bravery, Honesty, Integrity and Generosity.
Long Live the Nagas!
