Issueless elections

Much has taken place in Nagaland since 2003 after a nascent regional party –Naga People’s Front (NPF) won 19 seats and formed the DAN-I coalition in alliance with BJP, several other parties including independents to deny the incumbent Congress which won 21 seats. Congress dissidents led by Neiphiu Rio and K.Therie quit the party in 2002 and formed, revived and renamed Nagaland People’s Council (NPC) as Nagaland People’s Front. Later by October 2002, the name was modified to Naga People’s Front (NPF) to spread its wings across Naga territories in the region. The promise of the NPF during the 2003 campaign- to secure solution within three months after coming to power has not happened even after 20 years today. In 2003, the people may have believed in the promise simply because they were over eager, ignorant or credulous enough to feel solution was a matter of asking. Even earlier to 2003, before the polls in 1998 and against the backdrop of massive outpouring of sentiment for solution that took the form of a total boycott of election in the vain hope the Delhi would dance to the tune; the Congress refused to tag along and went ahead in filing nominations and won 46 seats uncontested, ten contested while four seats were won by independents. In 1998 Neiphiu Rio(cabinet minister of home), K. Therie (cabinet minister of power) in the Congress government headed by S.C. Jamir, rebelled over Naga solution by holding Jamir responsible for being the stumbling block against solution. The NPF campaign slogan for solution was ‘equi-closeness’ with all factions. It replaced Jamir’s ‘equi-distance’ with all factions. This slogan itself proved to be more than a prophetic rhetoric as the closeness soon became evident in pushing governance back to the fringe. Recently, former chief ministers- K.L. Chishi and S.C.Jamir- issued critical and separate statements over the loss of moral and constitutional authority of the government through corruption and lack of governance that facilitated various outfits to act as parallel authorities. In addition to these charges, both former chief ministers also held current chief minister Neiphiu Rio solely responsible for the disintegration of Nagaland state; a point that came against the backdrop of the ongoing demand to separate eastern Nagaland from Nagaland into two entities. The demand of Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) since a few years of intensive lobbying and agitations, bandhs etc has become ingrained. What the two former chief ministers wanted to remind is that Nagaland state was a result of the contributions of all Nagas of present Nagaland state especially those in eastern Nagaland. The grievances of the eastern Nagas is genuine and had been highlighted in Nagaland Post years ago. The issue should have been dealt with by the state government ruled by NPF and now NDPP-led coalition (UDA) comprising of BJP, NPF etc and discussed and deliberated on the floor of the house. Instead, the government re-directed the proponents to take their demands with the Centre and so now it is being handled directly by the union home ministry. This is also a failure on the part of the state. The Centre has rejected statehood demand and agreed on autonomous regional council. This has to be okayed and passed by the Nagaland Legislative Assembly before it is forwarded to the Centre then parliament to amend the State Of Nagaland Act, 1962. Unfortunately, in Nagaland elections there is or are no issues.