Accepting responsibility

 More than a year of pandemic has devastated millions in India while the situation in economically vulnerable states like Nagaland is no better. A strong and resilient economy sustains growth and prosperity. Also, it is not size that determines economic prosperity which is very crucial for people to achieve self-sufficiency but productivity. This may be seen in the case of Per Capita Income(PCI) of north eastern states. Last year Sikkim topped north eastern states in per capita income with Rs 3.17 lakh while Tripura with Rs 1.54 lakh was second Mizoram with Rs 1.41 lakh was third; Arunachal Pradesh with Rs 1.27 lakh was fourth; Nagaland with Rs 1.02 lakh was fifth; Meghalaya with Rs 81,000, was sixth; Assam with Rs 74,000 was seventh and Manipur with Rs 65,000 was eighth. According to definition, Per Capita Income(PCI) is a measure of the amount of money earned per person in a nation or state. PCI can be used to determine the average per-person income for an area and to evaluate the standard of living and quality of life of the population. Per Capita Income for a nation or state, is calculated by dividing the state or country’s national/local income by its population. There is nothing much to cheer about PCI data since the ground reality can be vastly different. Traditionally, Nagaland is an agro-based economy where horticulture, floriculture and sericulture have good potential including tourism, minerals and mining. Such natural abundance has only been waiting to be exploited but efforts have fallen much below the potential. Nagaland(16,579 sq.kms) may have been borne out of a political necessity but it wasn’t a desert like Israel or as tiny as Sikkim (7,096 sq/kms). Today Sikkim, which became a state in 1975, is way ahead of Nagaland in many areas especially productivity in the agro-industrial field. Nagaland became a state in 1963 with an abundance of not only natural resources but tremendous human resource potential among its 16 tribes and various other communities. The requirement for economic development is input and this demands willingness to endure hardships for achieving the desired goal. The spoon feeding syndrome and sense of entitlement has gradually and surely inflicted very serious damage on generations. Some leaders still complain about changing funding pattern in 1989 which was contained in Point No 11 of the 16-Point Memorandum of Understanding between the government of India and the Naga People’s Convention signed in 1960. The change in funding pattern did not prevent the government of India from granting a massive dose of Rs.365 crore as ‘peace bonus’ and one time grant to Nagaland in 2003. Leaders also complain that the Centre has not allowed the state to tap its own resources as per Art.371A, meaning oil, gas and natural resources. Some would even go as far as to highlight the Centre’s arbitrary transfer of Nagaland state from the external affairs ministry to home ministry. All these sound politically correct and deflect the attention from the causes and factors that have made Nagaland slide into what is has become today. These factors are regressive politics and a compromising religion. As a Christian majority or dominated state, the Church needs to seriously introspect and realize that time has come to practice what is preached.