"Everyone waiting for buttered side of the bread"
New Delhi
If the silence is a sign of cowardice, the story is not good for Nagaland.
The vibrant and brave community has been rendered into silence. But some of it is by choice apparently. In December 2021, I met one social worker and before we sat properly he asked me about my impression about the state of affairs with regard to Naga society and politics.
I merely responded saying, "everyone seems confused". Our friend shot back, "I am not at all confused. I know my civil society colleagues and leaders of other pressure groups are not confused either. They simply want to say they are confused, because everyone is waiting for the buttered side of the bread".
He explained further, "Most of us are buying time, we want others to bell the cat and if tomorrow we get Solution, we will say we were always together working hard. But if Solution does not come, we can say we knew everything is 'Misa-misi' and so we kept distance from any hooliganism". Into the second week of January 2023, I think my friend has hit the target bang on.
Opportunism is now the guiding theme. "What to do?," confessed another social worker, "The moment people get presidentship of a good organisation, you get a vehicle as a gift and your wife suddenly starts shopping in Delhi or in Guwahati for all other accessories.... So how can we can we take a clear stand".
That means 'confusion' helps. On his backdrop comes the Jan 12th meeting convened by the Naga People's Action Committee (NPAC). The organisation made news on Jan 6 during Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Dimapur.
Closer scrutiny of things and interaction with a few ear-on-ground leaders suggest there could be two broad kinds of 'outcome' of Jan 12 meet.
First, the turnout would be less. From the school day's tantrums of stomach pain to girl friend's wedding everything could coincide. So less turnout means -- less chances of making 'Kohima power politics' unhappy !
Secondly, of course, the turnout could be nearly satisfaction but the 'key' decision could be postponed for some other day. The refrain will be -- let us wait for more opportune time.
Well, rightly goes a social media message -- whatever is beautiful is beautiful by necessity, whatever is political is political by politics.
”The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone," Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen had said long back. His works later influenced great masters in their own right Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller and George Bernard Shaw.
Literature and plays never come out of nothing. They also have a universal and all-time relevance.
In 'An Enemy of the People' - the 1882 play - Ibsen gave the primary message that an individual, who stands alone, is more often "right" than the mass of people, who are portrayed as ignorant and sheep-like.
Contemporary society's belief was that the community was a noble institution that could be trusted; this as a notion was challenged by Ibsen.
The conservatism of society was under attack from Ibsen, and also the liberalism of the time. Ibsen illustrated how people on both sides of the social spectrum could be equally self-serving.
Nagaland needs to identify the protagonists and also the title of its play clearly.
ends
 |
| Ibsen |
No comments:
Post a Comment