The first time was just a cursory glance at what is written: “Do not eat the seeds, eat the fruits… ” on a catchy board put up below the over bridge near War Cemetery. The beautiful description quickly arrested my mind and almost everyday as I passed by I hardly fail to recite the script. That way I did not even bother to identify who exactly the persons are on the imprinted board for quite sometime until recently a colleague pricks my subconscious mind and I realize that indeed it has also the picture of the present Chief Minister of Nagaland. All the more, this realization gave me a deeper reason to conclude that what is rightly said is wrongly put up or it is a right message delivered at wrong time.
One need not go into empirical details to prove beyond the visible day to day reality of unparalleled corruption & nepotism, escalating extortion and related price rise, bogus & backdoor appointment, increasing rape and kidnap cases, which are typical characteristics of lawlessness governance of the State Government. The Hon’ble State Home Minister shares his concern like Thomas Hobbes, who theorized that the life of man in the State of Nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. It is a world of “survival of the fittest” and because there is no “common power to keep men in awe, they will always live in a state of war of all against all”. Therefore, in order to live a normal human life the citizen themselves must come out openly in the street to fight for their own rights or defend their own life and property because the elected government cannot do anything about lawlessness. Not surprisingly, we see many frustrated people approaching the faction governments for redress of their grievances. The point is- elected government is there for what?
Corruption, in a singular word. Give a convincing reason to refute the charges that there are parallel governments and bodies with split authority in the State. The entire gamut of affaires certify that corruption and related matter are the privilege of the government, grievance redressal and collection of taxes are delegated to the faction governments, enforcing law & order are the responsibility of the civil bodies and management of price rise falls under the customers care. Lawlessness is the other plural word. However, the main issue concerned here is “Who is eating the seeds?”
NPF Government is a government of deduction and commission. Deduction maybe a part of normal government procedure but there is a big difference between normal procedural deduction and abnormal substantial deduction. This is exactly what Rahul Gandhi, Hon’ble MP meant when he said in Dimapur that out of every Rs.1 released by the Center to the State only 15 paise is reaching the beneficiary. To cite few glaring instances first, we bluntly blame the contractors for quality-less work done but we also fail to reason that when 1/5 or 1/4 of the total amount is deducted on the pretext of one or the other reason the contractors cannot be expected to work at a loss. Also the more lucrative projects are snatched by the concerning Minister or Parliamentary Secretary or their family members, whether as authorized/authentic firm or not and the less profitable works are released to the rather more fortunate contractors. Secondly, development is being done mainly with huge assistance provide by Congress lead UPA Government and massive negotiated loan availed. But the question is who actually are doing the developmental work all over the State? They are a small section of privileged community. In many cases almost all the money have been released without finishing even half of the targeted work or point. Thirdly, huge amount are drawn against projects without doing anything. Fourthly, there are works taken over by influential people even before or without sanctioning of government’s order. Fifthly, there are tainted but protected ministers like the Minister of School Education who had the audacity to misappropriate the funds sanctioned for private schools and yet admit in the Assembly without a sense of guilt. Then there is also the question where actually Rs.18 crores under police modernization project has gone.
Now that we are talking of ‘eating the seeds’ I am reminded of a story. One Sunday morning a pastor preached to the congregation about the sin of stealing. When he came back home his young son asked: “Father, if stealing is a sin, why have you stolen our neighbor’s chicken for our dinner last night?” The father retorted: “Still then I am a Pastor!” Isn’t this quite relevant to our topic?
From Christ to Festivals it is now befittingly the Land of Corruption & Extortion. Sandwiched between the last two is the pitiable client who is paying for all the excess. What ought to be his goes into the bottomless pockets of corrupt leaders and officials and what is painstakingly earned/saved is comfortably collected by the national workers and countless tax associations.
When we talk of employment it always goes to the wrong person, the wrong place. MGNREGS is a striking instance. Appointment of teachers in Education Department is another conspicuous example. SRD is yet another one. Imaging how much can be the unrevealed list of backdoor appointments made in over 80 departments. How much of those would be the deserving and how much would be the undeserving? And who actually could be those undeserving?
It is amusing that the masters are eating up all the juicy seeds and they are preaching the hungry followers to eat the illusive fruits.
Vaprümu Demo, Kohima
One need not go into empirical details to prove beyond the visible day to day reality of unparalleled corruption & nepotism, escalating extortion and related price rise, bogus & backdoor appointment, increasing rape and kidnap cases, which are typical characteristics of lawlessness governance of the State Government. The Hon’ble State Home Minister shares his concern like Thomas Hobbes, who theorized that the life of man in the State of Nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”. It is a world of “survival of the fittest” and because there is no “common power to keep men in awe, they will always live in a state of war of all against all”. Therefore, in order to live a normal human life the citizen themselves must come out openly in the street to fight for their own rights or defend their own life and property because the elected government cannot do anything about lawlessness. Not surprisingly, we see many frustrated people approaching the faction governments for redress of their grievances. The point is- elected government is there for what?
Corruption, in a singular word. Give a convincing reason to refute the charges that there are parallel governments and bodies with split authority in the State. The entire gamut of affaires certify that corruption and related matter are the privilege of the government, grievance redressal and collection of taxes are delegated to the faction governments, enforcing law & order are the responsibility of the civil bodies and management of price rise falls under the customers care. Lawlessness is the other plural word. However, the main issue concerned here is “Who is eating the seeds?”
NPF Government is a government of deduction and commission. Deduction maybe a part of normal government procedure but there is a big difference between normal procedural deduction and abnormal substantial deduction. This is exactly what Rahul Gandhi, Hon’ble MP meant when he said in Dimapur that out of every Rs.1 released by the Center to the State only 15 paise is reaching the beneficiary. To cite few glaring instances first, we bluntly blame the contractors for quality-less work done but we also fail to reason that when 1/5 or 1/4 of the total amount is deducted on the pretext of one or the other reason the contractors cannot be expected to work at a loss. Also the more lucrative projects are snatched by the concerning Minister or Parliamentary Secretary or their family members, whether as authorized/authentic firm or not and the less profitable works are released to the rather more fortunate contractors. Secondly, development is being done mainly with huge assistance provide by Congress lead UPA Government and massive negotiated loan availed. But the question is who actually are doing the developmental work all over the State? They are a small section of privileged community. In many cases almost all the money have been released without finishing even half of the targeted work or point. Thirdly, huge amount are drawn against projects without doing anything. Fourthly, there are works taken over by influential people even before or without sanctioning of government’s order. Fifthly, there are tainted but protected ministers like the Minister of School Education who had the audacity to misappropriate the funds sanctioned for private schools and yet admit in the Assembly without a sense of guilt. Then there is also the question where actually Rs.18 crores under police modernization project has gone.
Now that we are talking of ‘eating the seeds’ I am reminded of a story. One Sunday morning a pastor preached to the congregation about the sin of stealing. When he came back home his young son asked: “Father, if stealing is a sin, why have you stolen our neighbor’s chicken for our dinner last night?” The father retorted: “Still then I am a Pastor!” Isn’t this quite relevant to our topic?
From Christ to Festivals it is now befittingly the Land of Corruption & Extortion. Sandwiched between the last two is the pitiable client who is paying for all the excess. What ought to be his goes into the bottomless pockets of corrupt leaders and officials and what is painstakingly earned/saved is comfortably collected by the national workers and countless tax associations.
When we talk of employment it always goes to the wrong person, the wrong place. MGNREGS is a striking instance. Appointment of teachers in Education Department is another conspicuous example. SRD is yet another one. Imaging how much can be the unrevealed list of backdoor appointments made in over 80 departments. How much of those would be the deserving and how much would be the undeserving? And who actually could be those undeserving?
It is amusing that the masters are eating up all the juicy seeds and they are preaching the hungry followers to eat the illusive fruits.
Vaprümu Demo, Kohima
