Political Theatrics

For those who grew up in the 1990s and earlier, the WWF (renamed WWE in 2002) felt real. Fans had their favorite ‘wrestling’ stars, drawn perhaps by the ‘F’ for Federation. However, as WWF evolved to become WWE with a focus on Entertainment, it became clear that what we once believed to be real wrestling was largely an illusion.

In WWE, participants work for a multimillion-dollar corporation, each playing a scripted character—some as heroes, others as villains. These personas and their storylines are crafted to generate profit, with wrestling serving both as entertainment and a means to resolve conflicts. Storylines frequently shift, with villains becoming heroes and vice versa.

Fans cheer for their favorites, but they have no influence over the outcomes, which are predetermined by the script. The wrestlers themselves are essentially stunt performers following directives from their bosses. The corporation decides who wins and who loses, making these determinations based on profit. While the fights are choreographed, they are open to interpretation. A wrestler may know he must lose, but how he loses might garner enough attention to be rewarded later. Occasionally, wrestlers may go overboard and get hurt, but that is the price of success.

The political theater in Nagaland mirrors the spectacle of WWE wrestling. Much like the wrestlers who put on a show to entertain and maintain their fan base, politicians in Nagaland are adept at creating spectacle and drama. Just as in WWE, where the outcomes are pre-determined and the conflicts are scripted, the real decisions in Nagaland’s political arena are often pre-arranged behind closed doors.

The only difference between WWE and Nagaland state politics is that in WWE, it’s the performers who might get hurt when things go wrong. In Nagaland politics, it’s the public that suffers when the political ‘performances’ go wrong.

The spectacle often overshadows the substance. While WWE’s scripted drama is designed to entertain, Nagaland’s political theater has real consequences for the public. It is crucial for the people to look beyond the performance and ensure that the political ‘show’ leads to meaningful progress rather than remaining just an elaborate act.