Indecision is decision

 No decision has been made after the August 18 consultative meeting held between the all-party government (comprising of PDA and erstwhile opposition NPF) with CNTC,ENPO and TPO. The issues that were deliberated included – implementation of the Register of Indigenous Inhabitant of Nagaland(RIIN), 33% Women Reservation in ULBs, Demarcation of Dimapur-Peren district boundary, Naga Tribunal and Institution of GBs. These issues have been discussed at several consultative meetings in the past especially RIIN and Women Reservation in ULBs. The other two- codification of Naga customary laws for constitution of Naga Tribunal and Institution of GBs in Urban areas etc were also discussed at various government levels. All these issues have been discussed since quite sometime ago and therefore, it is time that some decisions should have been taken. It appears that since 2003, political parties, seem to be finding themselves lost in being unable to make decisions on many crucial issues. For instance, the Register of Indigenous Inhabitant of Nagaland(RIIN) was formed by the state government on July 10,2019 after a series of meetings since 2018 with various organizations which have been demanding implementation of Inner Line Permit(ILP) under the BEFR Act 1973 to check illegal immigrants notably from Bangladesh. On July 28,2019 the state government, to project that it is pro-people, constituted the RIIN Commission headed by retired chief secretary Banuo Z.Jamir along with several other members to recommend procedures for identifying an indigenous inhabitant of Nagaland. The Commission had visited various parts of Nagaland and held a series of meetings with tribe hohos and other CSOs on the issue. The Commission also received numerous submissions from various apex organizations. The Commission then submitted its recommendations to the state cabinet by end of 2019. The state chief secretary then issued a notification on December 9,2019, extending the Inner Line Permit(ILP) regulation over entire Dimapur district. This came 40 years after an earlier notification was issued on November 21,1979, that declared then Dimapur sub-division as a tribal belt. While the RIIN Commission had recommended December 1,1963 as cut-off date and year for the purpose of indentifying an indigenous inhabitant, the December 9,2019 notification on the other hand, queered the pitch for November 21,1979 as cut of date and year. The cabinet neither distributed the RIIN report to the legislators nor even discussed about the issue despite vociferous demands from various tribe organisations to make its content known to public. Even at the April 16,2021 consultative meeting with some selected tribe hohos, the government did not distribute the RIIN report but only read out a gist of the recommendations. The meeting not unexpectedly, decided again, to form more committees such as Joint Consultative Committee(JCC) at the state level and Subcommittees at the district levels. The government eventually laid the RIIN report to the assembly on August 5 on the last day’s sitting where no discussion could be held because there was no opposition to protest why such a burning issue was sidelined. This newspaper had in the past, commented that the government’s favourite pastime of holding consultative meetings with various organisations has become a culture to eventually avoid making decisions. Those holding offices through people’s mandate are obligated to govern and should not be too inclined to populism and rhetoric by trying to suggest these are qualities of responsible leaders of the people.