India debates 'future of Democracy', but Nagas are silent
New Delhi
As India heads into a crucial round of election when doubts are even being expressed on what could happen to the future of democracy, Nagaland is still silent or rather dormant.
A large section of Naga people in the context of 2023 violence in Manipur state apparently do not like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and especially his Home Minister Amit Shah, but they may not like to discuss some of these major issues in public.
But even when it comes to issues afflicting the Naga society directly, they are silent.
Rahul Gandhi, the face of India’s political opposition, took out a 65-day second round trek across the breadth of India starting January. Maybe the Naga civil society should also do the something like that. 'Unite Naga civil society Yatra'.
But who would ? The next question is, - Why should anyone do it in exchange for no return benefit.
Between 2018 and 2022, the Naga Tribal Council (NTC) was one active body often embarrassing the stakeholders but making the right noise. So when opportunities came, some forces were unleashed. Incidentally, Chumben Murry as an individual was tasked with the tough and unpleasant assignment to 'bell the cat'. The Naga virtue elements worked among some self-sacrificing individuals and the plan had to be given up.
Apparently, eight leaders (or presidents) of influential tribal bodies then decided to recast the NTC.
It was also decided that a new name would be given to the organisation to make it appear more broad-based.
One suggestion was to call it CNTC. But it also met with hurdles. Sources now say the NTC will continue with the 'old structures' but any office bearer or key leader in the NTC will have to dissociate themselves from active party politics.
So the 'plot' to create a Sarkari-NGO has failed. This may be good for a society which is already
demoralised due to a plethora of reasons.
In national politics, we often grudge the fact that the opposition parties have failed to
create any solid political narrative in the last decade as an alternative model to the politics of the
Modi-Amit Shah duo.
At the state level in Nagaland too; there is no good 'socio-political narrative'.
Newspaper pages do not reflect people's anguish when everyone you meet and talk to are unhappy.
How to rejuvenate the Naga civil society?
Blogger : ear-on-ground
At the national level, political analysts and media persons are realising fast that any pan-India challenge to the BJP and Narendra Modi's political hegemony cannot be envisioned without a strong Congress.
In Nagaland context, the debate is a bit otherwise. The politics in the state is directly linked to the power politics of the ruling party, that is the BJP, in Delhi.
Let us leave that debate for another day.
But on the socio-economic stage in Nagaland, the NTC's revival will be critical.
Should NTC revive their earlier agenda of working closely with the GB Federation or so will have to be re-examined.
The Congress leaders try to sound realistic without being bitter to Rahul Gandhi and often say these days - our party will have to craft a more appealing governance model.
The NTC should also pull up sleeves. Old days with old books -- often one could find old letters yellowed by time. But some of those pages would provide good reading stuff.
Some would also provide you with the stuff to encourage oneself. We called that 'Food for thought'.
That is lacking in today's world - both in Nagaland and also in the national scene politically.
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Catholic shrine in an 'uninhabited' island making waves in Indian poll season
New Delhi
It's a typical election season in India and hence politics has been reduced to blame giving and credit seeking affair; and these are on expected lines.
However, amid the heat and dust has also come a Catholic shrine in the little known island between maritime borders of India and Sri Lanka.
St. Anthony's Catholic Shrine was dedicated in 1905, called in Tamil as Anthoniyar Koil. It has over 100 year old traditions, and was built by an Indian Catholic-Seenikuppan Padaiyatchi Ramnad Catholic diocese, on this 'uninhabited island'.
This church is dedicated to Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of fishermen. No one was required to possess Indian passport or Sri Lankan visa for visiting Kachchatheevu. Cut to 2024 and there's a big electoral-related row.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his career diplomat-turned-Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar have slammed the principal opposition party Congress for handing over the island to Sri Lanka. It also accused the grand old party of "weakening" the country's integrity and interests in the process.
The remarks from two eminent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders came in response to a Right To Information (RTI) report which revealed how the Congress government led by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allegedly "handed over Katchatheevu island" in Tamil Nadu province in the south of India to its neighbour Sri Lanka in 1974.
Of course, more than a diplomatic tussle, the issue as triggered by the federal leaders including PM Modi is directly linked to electoral strategies. The BJP is keenly contesting this year's general elections eyeing more than 400 seats for the ruling National Democratic Alliance. It is a tall order in a 543-member Lower House of Indian Parliament.
The first round of polling will take place on April 19.
Last time such a huge margin of victory (400 plus seats) was seen in India way back in 1984 when the Congress party under Late Rajiv Gandhi had 'reaped the benefits' of sympathy wave as polls were hold within two months of assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh body guard.
Indira was mother of Rajiv and mother-in-law of Italy-born Sonia Gandhi.
If wishes were horses, even a penniless beggar would ride - goes an old maxim. But political ambition may not be erroneous. It often helps a political party and hence there may not be any quarrel per se about BJP's and Indian Prime Minister's ambitious target.
However, a question remains what's the merit in raking up such an old 'diplomatic issue'. The BJP wants to penetrate Tamil Nadu province where Modi-led outfit has been more than weak. In all its electoral history, only once the saffron party has won one seat for Indian parliament from Tamil Nadu province. In 2019 --notwithstanding the so-called pro-Modi wave in the rest of India -- the BJP could not open its account in the state.
Out of 39 seats, Modi's BJP had contested only five seats and scored a zero. Similarly in 2014, when Modi first came into the national scene, the BJP had only one seat out of six candidates it put in the fray.
But this time, Modi wants to play up the emotive 'fishermen' issue vis-a-vis an overwhelming section of Tamil coastal area voters and hence the issue of Katchatheevu island has been raised.
"We believe the public has a right to know," India's foreign minister Dr Jaishankar told a press conference at the BJP headquarters in the national capital Delhi.
The island is located between Neduntheevu, Sri Lanka and Rameswaram, India and has been traditionally used by both Sri Lankan Tamil and Tamil Nadu fishermen.In 1974, then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi (grand mom of present Congress leader Rahul) accepted Katchatheevu as Sri Lankan area under the "Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement". The pact understandably aimed at resolving the maritime boundaries in the Palk Strait.
Another agreement signed in 1976 'restricted' both the countries’ fishermen from fishing in the other’s exclusive economic zones.
The BJP poll strategists feel the timing of raising the matters related to this island suits the party as it also exposes 'hidden agenda' of Congress party and its alliance partner DMK.
Jaishankar claimed the federal Indian government under Indira Gandhi did not decide the matter of handing over the island to Sri Lanka unilaterally. It kept DMK stalwart and then then Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi posted and 'well informed', says Jaishankar.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by M K Stalin, present Chief Minister, is a powerful political party in the province. He is Karunanidhi's son.
The dispute over the island had began when Britishers were at the helm of affairs in the subcontinent - 1921.
While Indian view was that the island was part India because it belonged to a landlord of the Raja of Ramnad. However, this view was opposed and it was claimed citing 'evidence' that Katchatheevu island along with one well known St. Anthony's Church on the island belonged to Jaffna Diocese.
With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most populous city.
Of course, it may not be BJP's case to open a major diplomatic battle with its now cash-starved neighbour Sri Lanka. Essentially, the BJP wants to score politically against the Congress and the DMK.
Dr Jaishankar and other BJP leaders - therefore - point out that India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had told Indian Parliament that: “The island might be located about 18 miles east of Pamban. But I do not know where Pamban is located".
Dr Jaishankar, who also served as India's envoy in China and the US and also India's foreign secretary, now says: "Nehru had said that he attached no importance at all to this little island and I (Nehru) would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it".
"I (Nehru writing) don't like matter like this pending indefinitely and being raised again and again in Parliament".
"So to Pandit Nehru this was a little island ....he saw it as a nuisance, why are people bringing it up again and again in Parliament. So for him the sooner you give it away the better....This was not just Nehru's views...this view continued with (Nehru's daughter) Indira Gandhi too....", Dr Jaishankar said.
Recalling the parliament debate of 1974, he said, a member called G Vishwanathan from Tamil Nadu had said, "We are worried about .....thousands of miles away from Indian territory but we are not worried about this small island.
PM (Indira Gandhi) told a Congress meeting that this is a little rock...".
The episode has certainly upset Congress and it could be on a back-foot for a while.
Eminent journalist Shekhar Gupta says: -- So far in this election season this issue has been
the "biggest surprise" politically raised by the BJP.
The Congress fielded its onetime 'middle class hero' and a former Finance and Home
Minister, P Chidambaram, who has sought to attack India's foreign minister Jaishankar personally.
Chidambaram for his part launched a scathing attack on Jaishankar over the latter's press-conference on
the Katchatheevu island and alleged that Jaishankar under the influence of PM Modi has become a “mouthpiece” of the
BJP and RSS -- the fountainhead of India's right wing socio-political games.
"Tit for tat is old. Tweet for Tweet is the new weapon. Will Foreign Minister Mr. Jaishankar please refer to the RTI reply dated 27-1-2015. I believe that Mr Jaishankar was the FM on 27-1-2015. The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka. Why is the Foreign Minister and his ministry doing a somersault now? How quickly can people change colours? From a suave liberal Foreign Service officer to a smart Foreign Secretary to a mouthpiece of the RSS-BJP, life and times of Mr Jaishankar will be recorded in the annals of acrobatic sports," the
senior Congress leader wrote on X.
Chidambaram had been a lawmaker from Tamil Nadu and in the present House, his son Karti Chidambaram
is. Hence, observers say Chidambarams are from Tamil Nadu province and they know the island issue
could be an emotive issue in the election season.
The articulate Foreign Minister Dr Jaishankar said, "In the last 20 years, 6,184 Indian fishermen have been detained
by Sri Lanka and in the same period 1,175 Indian fishing vessels have been seized, detained or apprehended.
This is really the background of the issue that we are discussing".
Shiv Shankar Menon, a former foreign secretary, has stated that the Indian ruling dispensation under PM Modi
is wrong in raking up an old diplomatic matter in a political context.
"The situation on the ground is hard to reverse, but such issues being raised by the country's leadership
will damage the credibility of the country and could be a self goal," Menon has been quoted in daily 'The Hindu'.
Another ex-diplomat and former Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Ashok Kantha, said: Sovereignty and
territorial integrity are not issues where the government's position changes the agreements. It would set a bad example".
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