Long and winding road

On the eve of New Year, there is excitement about ringing out the old and ringing in the new and this time too, the same pervades the minds of people the world over. People of every religion and across all cultures celebrate New Year in different ways and there is little to match the celebration and revelry. As people will step into the New Year, it provides an opportunity for a review of many aspects in a person’s life and the effort to make life better –spiritually, mentally and physically. This desire for progress and to see a better tomorrow is exciting and this is where the vision to see and realize the promises comes from. The state of mind therefore, plays a critical part in the entire perspective. These are the epitome of what a progressive resolution ought to be and through which relationships, responsibilities and careers are addressed. In this regard, as people in Nagaland step into the new year 2024, they will still have to address many issues that have spiralled to levels that attract attention and which need to be handled with cooperative wisdom, if society in Nagaland is to come out of the shadows of doubts, confusion and conflicts. These issues attract attention and need to be handled with cooperative wisdom, if society in Nagaland is to come out of the shadows of doubts, confusion and conflicts. Perhaps it is time to get realistic about the situation at home with people being drowned in the cacophony of clichés and phrases. In all this, the fate of two million people cannot be decided by a political system that has no realistic goals for economic development, except as being adept at spending billions of rupees in the name of building and constructing infrastructure that invariably leads to widening of the chasm between haves and haves not. Without a strong and thriving economy for the government to leech from, there can be no implementable vision. It is precisely from this aspect of the nature of government that one needs to look at the political part of the economic environment. Both politics and economics are like two sides of a coin that are prescriptive and descriptive. While there is positive or guarded hope, it may also be reminded that the Covid virus has not disappeared but is reappearing. The arrival of a new mutated strain of COVID-19 called JN.1 COVID variant has already spread from the south to north and there was one traveller who travelled from Delhi to Imphal via Dimapur, being diagnosed with it. The reappearance of the variant virus has compelled many countries to enforce some form of preventive measures reminiscent of the pandemic from December 31,2020 evening till after January 2,2021. The new year hopes cannot materialise without a serious effort to address such diverse issues, some of which have spiralled to worrisome levels. There is more than enough reason to seriously ponder over why, since over a decade, governance has taken a back seat and who have been tossing all rules out of the window. One trap which the state has landed into has been the financial expenditure. There is no short cut nor panacea for the problems which have grown during the past few years. While hope is positive yet doing nothing but hoping is negative.