Nearly half a century has passed since Nagaland attained her Statehood. Since then, the State has seen a good number of political leaders who ruled the State. Most of the early batch of pioneer leaders, who were, sincere men, had great dreams for the future development of Nagaland and employment of the Naga youth and the betterment of the Naga society as a whole.
As the years rolled by, the developmental activities started by the Naga visionary politicians such as Dr. S. C. Jamir, Jasokhie, Dr. Hokishe, R. C. Chiten, Ngully, M. Kithan and Chingwang Konyak to name a few, brought many development in the State, such as paper mill, sugar mill, veneer mill, brown swiss breeding farm, Jalukie, to name a few. They established many educational institutions, constructed beautiful buildings for colleges and high schools. In the initial days of Statehood, lots of good quality roads for better communication were also built. But when those early batch of veteran politicians retired, younger generation of politicians took over the helm of affairs leading to a steady collapse of development in the State. When compared to other neighbouring cities, we have many palatial buildings owned by the politicians but the very roads leading to those buildings and that we all have to use, are almost non-existent. As someone put it, “a case of rich public and poor government?”. Perhaps, the politicians’ sense of guilt stops them from condemning the road conditions publicly, even though, they too, have to use the same roads, as the common man. The recent government regimes changes have not been able to maintain a flyover, built decades ago, properly. The State’s only public stadium at Dimapur which was constructed in the 70’s is not fully completed, as per the original blueprint. Shocking, isn’t it? And in recent times, the Dhansiri bridge’s reconstruction is taking an eternity, adding to the long list of public woes.
Most state owned infrastructures lie in deplorable state, without signs of maintenance or repairs. The physical signs of all things generally associated with development show regressive growth, instead of the expected progressive growth.
Over the years, corruption seeped in and the gradual decay in State politics has a far reaching adverse effect in the State. The NSF, who traditionally played its part as the opposition to the successive ruling governments used to be a good watchdog, as required in a vibrant democratic process. Slowly, the autonomous body has aligned itself with the ruling parties allowing the incumbents in power to de as they please. The successive and newer breeds of politicians have managed to muzzle the voice of the aspiring youth. Policy makers, with vested interests, have effectively exploited the loopholes in the system to favour a few. This has led to denial of jobs to the deserving candidates and now, government jobs have become more coveted making the already frustrated youth, more frustrated. Instead of creating new job avenues, the closure of old factories, have affected the employment crisis. As per the latest statistics, about three thousand plus university graduates enter the job market annually. This creates an additional pressure to the already burgeoning number of those educated job-seekers, in a scenario where there are no new jobs, to effectively absorb them.
My say, as a concerned Naga is, “When and who will check the rot now?” “Why can’t we have more of those selfless and honest Naga leaders, as in the past, in today’s political arena? How can we, as one Naga people, encourage our youth to join politics who may usher in all round development in the State and steer the destiny of our beautiful State?”