A few central BJP leaders are anxious. How can a state government be called a 'government' when laws are withdrawn and the regime takes the risk of displeasing the Supreme Court under the influence of pressure groups?
Next issue in debate is more fundamental.
What is the connection between the late BJP leader Jaswant Singh, former Defence and External Affairs Minister, and the ongoing row in Nagaland over ULB polls?
Recently a few senior BJP leaders reportedly received identical letters from Nagaland that referred to the "agony" of womenfolk. On this backdrop, one of the leaders recalled a famous statement of the former Minister-- Jaswant- who was actually a man for all seasons for Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Once Jaswant Singh lamented : “A friendly fire is an accident. I have been betrayed by my kith and kin." In circa 2023, can the Naga women easily endorse the Late BJP leader ?
Now let us examine the strength of the phrase in circulation -- "mandated bodies". The letters written to central BJP leaders raise the basic question -- which is a 'mandated body'?
'Nagaland Page' Link
The Government of India is likely to refer the issue to legal experts and possibly also Nagaland Governor La Ganesan to examine things in detail. "Essentially this is a technical issue....are bodies such as the Naga Hoho mandated by the entire Naga society?
The central government query is how much importance do people of Eastern Nagaland give to an organization called
Naga Hoho ? Did it not find itself singled out as a body of only a few select tribes Nagas of primarily?
"If not, what's the ENPO? Why does the Naga Hoho have no say in central Nagaland?," a source told 'Nagaland Page'.
The source also maintained that rather the Naga Students Federation (NSF) is perhaps more likely to be considered
a "mandated body" because there is an elaborate democratic process and electioneering involved in it and all
Naga students can vote.
The Naga Hoho too is an old body. Earlier the organization leadership moved from one tribe to another, according to sources, by rotation. It was not structured.
Only in the nineties a structured body was created. The process essentially marked a coming together of a group of Naga leaders and intellectuals.
M Vero was the first president of Naga Hoho and in the 1990s at Kohima it was common knowledge that Vero was an ardent opponent of Chief Minister Vamuzo. Vero had defeated Vamuzo in 1989 assembly polls but later became his Agriculture Minister when Vamuzo headed the JLP ministry.
Vero was a bossom friend and also a a die-hard admirer of S C Jamir.
I posed a query about Naga Hoho and the beginning journey to a few Netas of the 1990s and also to some ex Babus. The findings are interesting.
One source said, "In 1996-97, one militant group understood the importance of the Naga Hoho and inched closer to it. The inclusion tribal bodies from Manipur aggrieved ENPO and they walked out from Kohima meet even forgoing the lunch". However, some years later political parties and an important Neta developed differences with the Hoho leadership.
As of new the Naga Hoho does not represent all Naga tribes and analysts say this paradox forced stakeholders to form bodies such as NTC, CNTC and also the body of 14 bodies.
On the otherhand, individual Tribal bodies in each district is "mandated by convention". These may not be structured from beginning and so there are differences with Village Council and Area Council. Even the provision of Area Council was discontinued later.
There is another important issue before the central government, sources said adding, "The NDPP leadership of Rio and Chingwang Konyak has made many civil society bodies more powerful even compared to elected MLAs. The Supreme Court taking exception to repeal of law related to urban bodies has actually forced New Delhi to pull up sleeves.
INDPP-BJP Govt is seen as surrendering to civil society demands and BJP cannot afford to look the
other way".
One source has even gone to the extent of stating that while in Nagaland an autonomous territory could come, in Kashmir Farooq Abdullah is
fighting hard on why Ladakh was taken away from Jammu and Kashmir.
But politicians such as K Azo Nienu of NPF says the decision to repeal the law was a "wise decision".
The Supreme Court has dismissed the notion and said - “You cannot keep everyone happy .....At every stage when
something is concluded, someone will object".
In other words, the apex court of the land is seeking to impart some lesson to the Nagaland government -- which
is being run by an experienced neta and a person who enjoys good working rapport
with leaders such as Himanta Biswa Sarma and Amit Shah.
Those who saw the 2017 violence unfolding from distance are now finding the going tough.
The real problem is some people 'mix up" governance with populism. During my recent interaction veteran S C Jamir said: "For the state leaders to appease a few organisations in one week means creating new districts; on another occasion
they 'encouraged' a pressure group to rush to Delhi (ENPO) for splitting Nagaland. Yet on a third occasion, they tried to appease the tribal bodies and repealed a law in the Assembly forgetting that the matter has been discussed and debated even before the Supreme Court".
The moot point the central BJP leaders are disturbed with is while there are several 'mandated' bodies in Nagaland today -- the real forum which should be "mandated and empowered adequately" --- that is the state government and the state legislature are not.
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