Dirty Election

If you closely observe the manner in which state assembly elections are held in Nagaland, you know you would most probably come to the conclusion that all’s not fair and free or clean. Rather, elections in Nagaland are one long expectoration – except that the mucus would not eject no matter how hard you coughed! In fact, elections in Nagaland clearly indicate a failed and, therefore, dangerous political experiment. The Clean Election Movement can only clean that which can be cleaned but it cannot overhaul the system. This might sound a bit radical but the electoral system in Nagaland needs to be reconstructed in such a way that it complements Naga polity.

The current system of election is designed to complement the parliamentary form of democracy. The point to be noted here is that there are many forms of democracy and parliamentary democracy as adopted by the Indian Constitution is just one of the many forms of democracy. Naga democracy, which is inherently consensus democracy, is quite in contrast with the majoritarian electoral systems like parliamentary democracy. This perhaps could be the reason why the current parliamentary system of election has become a joke in Nagaland. There is no perfect system of election or democracy. Thus, the Indian parliamentary system is flawed. So also is Naga democracy. However, Nagas have always had their own system of democracy and it can be claimed that Naga democracy is more ideal (though not perfect) than parliamentary democracy for the Naga people. This is easy for anyone to say this because it’s all out there for everyone to see.

However, the question is what can we do about it? The answer is nothing. The only semblance of a chance we have to adopt our own form of democracy that suits our polity more ideally than the Indian parliamentary system is by incorporating it into the proposed Naga Constitution – provided the Government of India accepts it. That is quite a long shot, everybody knows. So, what we can do meanwhile is try to adapt and adopt the Indian system. Despite its flaws, there are also many positives that the parliamentary system offers. To change the manner in which Naga people conduct elections today, there is no magic formula. It will take us a lot of conscious effort exerted in a sustained manner over a long period of time, employing a multi-pronged campaign. The best chance we have in front of us is for the Church to continue leading the campaign, invite experts from more diverse backgrounds into the campaign, and muster the courage to speak up. The momentum that the campaign has gained during this electoral cycle must be maintained. The current election will be held on February 27 and a new government installed soon thereafter. However, the clean election movement must continue without any pause. A campaign against dirty elections to complement the clean election movement may also be considered – although it would entail confronting the powers-that-be.