Five years ago, exactly on this day I wrote an article titled ‘Democracy in Nagaland’ shortly after the Lok Sabha Election was over in Nagaland. And down the years, we have had a state general election and a bye-election to the lone Lok Sabha seat which was necessitated after Mr. Rio vacated the seat for reasons best known to everyone but sadly things haven’t changed yet!
This Lok sabha election was no different from the past elections. The overall voter turn-out was 83.12% but there was a steep rise in the percentage only after 13.00 hours which usually is considered as the opportune time for proxy voting. Unlike other elections, this time the NBCC which had erstwhile spearheaded the Clean Election Campaign chose to remain silent and so does its affiliates and the students’ union which had earlier vociferously vouched for the same. The ECI’s directive to use an additional document along with the voter-slip was not complied in almost all the polling stations. The ECI should take cognizance of the flaws and initiate strong measures against the erring polling officials lest it degrades its already dubious reputation of being biased. The installation of cameras inside the polling stations was a futile exercise and a causes a huge drain to the exchequer. In the last state general election, I was a polling agent for a particular political party and the tab which was supposed to capture the proceedings of the entire election process stopped working abruptly. I asked for the replacement of the tab and it was complied but the video quality was terrible. The same was reported in many polling stations this time too.
This time around the opposition parties put up strong fight against the ruling PDA Government. The Citizenship Amendment Bill, Uniform Civil Code were among the many issues which the opposition managed to use it to the maximum to launch a scathing attack on the PDA which has alliance partners of BJP and JD(U). The Naga Students' Federation under the initiative of NESO had earlier on January 8, 2019 launched a state wide bandh opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill which was followed by another State Wide Bandh on February 11 under the banner of the Nagaland GB's Federation with the support of the Naga Civil Society Organizations, all of whom vehemently and aggressively condemned the Citizenship Amendment Bill. But come elections, and there was little or no resistance from any CSO's, Hohos or Students' Unions. In fact, some GB's who were at the forefront against the CAB during the Bandh were seen with Ministers and MLAs of the ruling party during the campaign trail! None of the organisations paid heed to the proud declaration of the BJP President Amit Shah who explicitly stated that the BJP will implement CAB if voted back to power. This controversial statement was eke out by State BJP President Temjen Imna Along who made it clear that the BJP Nagaland would not disassociate from the National party even if CAB is put to force after BJP comes back to power. Then, we have our Government led by the not so honorable Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio who stated that Nagaland will be immune to CAB since it is protected by Article 371(A) and BEFRA, 1873 but cannot provide any logical explanation to support his statement. The BJP which had released its Manifesto on 8 April, 2019 contains some serious contentious issues such as the passage of CAB, implementation of Uniform Civil Code(UCC), Abrogation of Article 370 which guarantees special provision for Jammu and Kashmir. What was then inconspicuous was made very lucid in its Manifesto. What our nincompoop legislators in the treasury bench cannot comprehend or their wilful ignorance because of the Pink Gandhi notes is that once the BJP has a clear majority in both the houses of the Parliament. As promised in their Manifesto, the UCC will be put in to force and the Article 371(A) which we consider as our alpha and omega will be scrapped just as they have promised to scrap Article 370. These they intend to implement although they have failed to fulfil any of their promises made in their 2014 Manifesto.
This Lok Sabha Election would have been an easy win for the opposition had the Seven MLAs from the Eastern Region and the Two NPP MLAs not switched their sides to the ruling camp. The obvious reason being the growing discontentment against the BJP Government at the Centre. Whatever arrangements the MLAs had prior to switching sides. This political drama clearly reflects the myopia of Naga politicians. The withdrawal of NPF and NPP candidates in 26 Aonglenden A/C has once again portrayed the Naga politicians in a very bad taste devoid of principles to the outside world. The saddest state of affairs was when the Dy. CM of Nagaland came to the polling station with multiple voter slips in his hand which was a direct challenge to the ECI. However, no action were taken for this brazen act and it was dismissed by the RO citing the lame excuse of any documentary evidence though the CEO Nagaland was tagged on Twitter repeatedly. The CEO Nagaland went radio silence just as our CM who makes use of his Twitter account only to congratulate others and convey birthday greetings!
Nonetheless, the 2019 Lok Sabha election in Nagaland will be remembered as one of the fiercest elections which was actually fought on issues though it was only one-sided. The Indian National Congress party workers along with NPF campaigned from Village to village, Door to Door instilling and rousing political consciousness among the masses. Many are witness as to how this election was fought and it will definitely go down the pages of our history. All is not well but with time it will be well.
This Lok sabha election was no different from the past elections. The overall voter turn-out was 83.12% but there was a steep rise in the percentage only after 13.00 hours which usually is considered as the opportune time for proxy voting. Unlike other elections, this time the NBCC which had erstwhile spearheaded the Clean Election Campaign chose to remain silent and so does its affiliates and the students’ union which had earlier vociferously vouched for the same. The ECI’s directive to use an additional document along with the voter-slip was not complied in almost all the polling stations. The ECI should take cognizance of the flaws and initiate strong measures against the erring polling officials lest it degrades its already dubious reputation of being biased. The installation of cameras inside the polling stations was a futile exercise and a causes a huge drain to the exchequer. In the last state general election, I was a polling agent for a particular political party and the tab which was supposed to capture the proceedings of the entire election process stopped working abruptly. I asked for the replacement of the tab and it was complied but the video quality was terrible. The same was reported in many polling stations this time too.
This time around the opposition parties put up strong fight against the ruling PDA Government. The Citizenship Amendment Bill, Uniform Civil Code were among the many issues which the opposition managed to use it to the maximum to launch a scathing attack on the PDA which has alliance partners of BJP and JD(U). The Naga Students' Federation under the initiative of NESO had earlier on January 8, 2019 launched a state wide bandh opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill which was followed by another State Wide Bandh on February 11 under the banner of the Nagaland GB's Federation with the support of the Naga Civil Society Organizations, all of whom vehemently and aggressively condemned the Citizenship Amendment Bill. But come elections, and there was little or no resistance from any CSO's, Hohos or Students' Unions. In fact, some GB's who were at the forefront against the CAB during the Bandh were seen with Ministers and MLAs of the ruling party during the campaign trail! None of the organisations paid heed to the proud declaration of the BJP President Amit Shah who explicitly stated that the BJP will implement CAB if voted back to power. This controversial statement was eke out by State BJP President Temjen Imna Along who made it clear that the BJP Nagaland would not disassociate from the National party even if CAB is put to force after BJP comes back to power. Then, we have our Government led by the not so honorable Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio who stated that Nagaland will be immune to CAB since it is protected by Article 371(A) and BEFRA, 1873 but cannot provide any logical explanation to support his statement. The BJP which had released its Manifesto on 8 April, 2019 contains some serious contentious issues such as the passage of CAB, implementation of Uniform Civil Code(UCC), Abrogation of Article 370 which guarantees special provision for Jammu and Kashmir. What was then inconspicuous was made very lucid in its Manifesto. What our nincompoop legislators in the treasury bench cannot comprehend or their wilful ignorance because of the Pink Gandhi notes is that once the BJP has a clear majority in both the houses of the Parliament. As promised in their Manifesto, the UCC will be put in to force and the Article 371(A) which we consider as our alpha and omega will be scrapped just as they have promised to scrap Article 370. These they intend to implement although they have failed to fulfil any of their promises made in their 2014 Manifesto.
This Lok Sabha Election would have been an easy win for the opposition had the Seven MLAs from the Eastern Region and the Two NPP MLAs not switched their sides to the ruling camp. The obvious reason being the growing discontentment against the BJP Government at the Centre. Whatever arrangements the MLAs had prior to switching sides. This political drama clearly reflects the myopia of Naga politicians. The withdrawal of NPF and NPP candidates in 26 Aonglenden A/C has once again portrayed the Naga politicians in a very bad taste devoid of principles to the outside world. The saddest state of affairs was when the Dy. CM of Nagaland came to the polling station with multiple voter slips in his hand which was a direct challenge to the ECI. However, no action were taken for this brazen act and it was dismissed by the RO citing the lame excuse of any documentary evidence though the CEO Nagaland was tagged on Twitter repeatedly. The CEO Nagaland went radio silence just as our CM who makes use of his Twitter account only to congratulate others and convey birthday greetings!
Nonetheless, the 2019 Lok Sabha election in Nagaland will be remembered as one of the fiercest elections which was actually fought on issues though it was only one-sided. The Indian National Congress party workers along with NPF campaigned from Village to village, Door to Door instilling and rousing political consciousness among the masses. Many are witness as to how this election was fought and it will definitely go down the pages of our history. All is not well but with time it will be well.
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