Spark ignored

It took a request from the ministry of home affairs to Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation(ENPO) for the latter to ‘relax’ the total abstention of election and all related matters across eastern Nagaland. After maintain a public stance to stick with its avowed and steely determination to not relent under any circumstances, ENPO decided to ‘ relax’ in response to the MHA request. ENPO’s demand for the ‘Frontier Nagaland’ dates back to 2010, while public rallies and meetings have been on for even longer. ENPO represents the seven Naga tribes viz., Konyak, Sangtam, Chang, Phom, Khiamniungan, Yimchungru and Tikhir from six districts of Eastern Nagaland: Mon, Tuensang, Kiphire, Shamator, Longleng and Noklak. ENPO was formed around 1997 after it moved out of Naga Hoho. After having said much against participation in the assembly election to be held in February 27 this year in support of the demand for a Frontier Nagaland state, ENPO made it clear that there was no turning back. The main reason for wanting to be separate from Nagaland was due to being deprived, ignored or disregarded in terms of education, infrastructure and economic progress. In response the newly formed Democratic Alliance of Nagaland(DAN) government created the Department for Under Developed Areas(DUDA) in its first innings after the 2003 elections. Though promising perhaps much and as expectations remained high, it appears that there has been a vast difference between promises and delivery. A compilation of the total funds received by the four districts vis-à-vis other districts could also shed more light on whether there has been a conscious move to deprive the people of the four districts of their dues. K.Therie who was the first DAN finance minister, had blamed the DAN government for discrimination on the eastern Nagas in matters of government contract works. He alleged that the works were awarded only to some ‘favoured ones’ or those close to the leadership. That may or may not be true but the fact remains, that owing to a lot of gap in matters in education and development between the people of the erstwhile Naga Hills Tuensang Area, which was loosely administered under the North East Frontier Agency(NEFA) and Nagas(also known as ‘major’ or advanced tribes) in the erstwhile Naga Hills district under Kohima; terms such as ‘backward’ or ‘undeveloped’ areas reflected the inequality. To address this issue, the government of India, while creating the new state of Nagaland, had made a constitutional provision, wherein special fund allocation was provided for Tuensang area and placed under the state Governor and who in turn, released it directly to the minister of Tuensang affairs. Successive DAN governments including PDA and UDA have much to explain on why the issue has not been discussed on the floor of the house and allowed to be handled by the ministry of home affairs after bypassing them. It is ironic that while the state government has never failed to call for unity to resolve all issue, in practice it has done just the opposite. It is also ironic that while according top priority to political issue, the state government had relegated such issues to the background. If there is any failure of regional parties, it is over the issue of disintegration of Nagaland state whether by chance or design and this can be a very crucial issue which needs to be addressed during the current election campaign .