In yesterday’s curtain raiser by Offstumped it was clear that the public debate in Nagaland over the upcoming election was pretty much stuck in the identity politics of last century that has been further complicated by the factional feuds.
Offstumped is of the firm opinion that the public debate in Nagaland needs a fresh start, some bold new thinking.
As we saw in yesterday’s post the principal protagonists – the Congress and the NPF are sparring over the issue of territorial integrity of Nagaland and the ever elusive reconciliation between the tribes.
Where the principal political formations see deadlock the third alternative which in this case is the BJP must see opportunity for a fresh new debate. At the heart of the Naga problem lies this rather anachronistic notion that empowerment for an ethnic group stems from political power and that power can only be attained when the territories are defined in a way to favor one ethnic group over the other. What if the BJP were to give the debate a completely different turn that would render the territorial issue irrelevant.
What if the BJP were to base its Nagaland Campaign on the twin planks of Creating incentives and opportunities to dramatically boost Economic Activity in Nagaland and couple that with Full Autonomy to Local Bodies to Tax and Spend ?
In yesterday’s post we saw pictures from Wokha. Dr. TM Lotha the BJP candidate there had some right thoughts when he focussed on how the Vajpayee lead NDA Government boosted economic activity.
He also disclosed that as soon as the DAN came to power in the State on March 6, 2003, Vajpayee had given Rs 365 crore to the State to wipe out the accumulated deficit of the previous Congress regime.
He also highlighted the major works completed and already taken up with the Vajpayee?s economic packages viz Agriculture, Village Industries, Horticulture, Floriculture, Medical Plants, Bamboo Products and Bamboo Mission, Tourism and Transport, development of infrastructure of Nagaland University at Lumami and Kohima Campus, Tourism Circuit to link areas in Northern Nagaland, particularly Mon district, Regional Information Technology, Second Phase completion of Indira Gandhi Stadium, completion of Sainik School, up-gradation of District Hospitals, Rural Employment Generation Program, development of eco-friendly municipal waste treatment plants at Dimapur, Kohima and other towns, etc. Many of these in fact remained as White Elephant and it was only after Vajpayee started paying special attention for the overall development of the State, things got moving in right direction, he added
Now thats good for starters. Offstumped has a couple more ideas that perhaps should be worth debating.
Make Nagaland a hub for the western Music Industry
In yesterday’s post we saw how english language music is playing?a key role in the campaign in Nagaland. Here is a state where there is so much raw talent and potential to not just produce new content but to also quickly adapt global content to suit local tastes. Perhaps the BJP must consider coming up with a bold new idea on how to make Nagaland the hub for producing and re-packaging musical content based on contemporary western genre. It could create the right tax incentives for entertainment majors to invest in Nagaland as well as to benefit the availability of a large local talent pool.
Consider BPO Services for Organized Churches in the West
A 90% Christian population with wide knowledge of the English language must be considered a human resources treasure trove for knowledge services. Especially given the prominent role religion plays in Nagaland another area to consider is Outsourcing services for Churches. Today Churches in North America are multi-billion dollar corporations with fairly sophisticated information technology and business process needs. It could be a great opportunity for Nagaland to target this market with low cost economics and socio-religious values.
This perhaps is just the tip of the iceberg. The point is not the specific ideas in of themselves but the mindset that looks to change the contours of the public debate away from the dead-end identity politics of last century to a new theme based on creating economic opportunities that exploit the talents of the people of Nagaland.
Offstumped Bottomline: Entitlements cannot be the path to Empowerment. It is time someone looked the Naga people in the eye and told them the plain truth that statehood in which ever way it is redefined will never be the panacea to their problems. It is only in an environment that empowers the local communities to exploit their talents while giving them the?freedom to be masters of their economic destiny that Naga ambitions can be realized. It is time the Naga people rejected the identity politics of last century and demanded that bold new ideas be injected into the public debate.
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KPS Gill on a book release function in Guwahati yesterday:
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=feb1908/at02
(the link may not work when archived- hence his comments as reproduced below):
The former DGP also said that he was perhaps the first SP to raise alarm about illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. Going back to the genesis of the tension, he said way back in 1964, some of the North-Eastern States and West Bengal had started deporting the Bangladeshis. But the neighbouring countries allowed them to settle across the border, which led to frequent clashes.
BJP/RSS should take up the re-conversion of the nagaland christians back to their hindu fold.
Aryan>>BJP/RSS should take up the re-conversion of the nagaland christians back to their hindu fold.
According to dhimmi Indian (Hindu) Media and political parties, conversion to Hinduism is fundamentalism, but if done by minorities then its all secular.
This slant is given in last 30-40 years and anti-hindu, anti-indian people, ideologies have infiltrated into media, NGOs, parties.
As democracy deepens, economy rises, middle class grows, its being slowly undone. The process needs to be hastened as well.
Hardly any Indian knows the role played by Baptists in NE. Thanks to purchase, infiltration of media by vested interest.
Mr Mukerjee,
I wuld like to disagree with you on your last point. Most indians are aware of the fact that in NE (all states) , the majority are Christians and the missionaires did conversions in the 80’s and 90’s. I feel its futile to even expecting them to reconvert and hence lets not indulge in pipedreams. What we should be worried about at this moment are the large scale conversions happening in the South in particular in interiors of TN and AP. There are large gangs of missionaries roaming around like hungry wolves looking for the prey. The media will never highlight this issue and hence it is the duty of people and also the RSS to take up this matter and do something before TN and AP become christian majority states.
Mass re-conversions in Gujurat, MP have shown that it is possible to re-convert en masse. The hindu ‘awareness’ just has to reach a critical mass.
If there can be christian missionaries, there can be hindu missionaries. One has to make sure it’s done in a smart way, business-like fashion, the way the churches operates. Instead of trashing missionaries, hindus can join organization that are doing missionary work, the hindu vivekananda way like ekal vidhyalaya
http://ekalindia.org/ekal_new/index.php
One has also to genuinely address the issues of dalits and tribals to stop conversions, that is the main issue. Hindus need to work much harder to help their own and not discriminate against them. The caste system has to be destroyed for hindusim to survive this millenium.
guys,
you are getting tensed for nothing. The Christian population in India is after all on a decline. It was 2.7% in 1961, 2.6 in 1971, 2.5 in 1981, 2.4 in 1991, 2.3 in 2001. This shows that VHP is after all reconverting more people than those missionaries are converting. The other thing is most of these dalits who convert are very very poor people who would do anything for money. But they dont change their lives. I in fact know a couple of people like that. They just take the money and go to church a couple of times and then go back to temple. They say it is just not possible to change their way of life completely. Another thing in south (I am from TN, so i know about this), Christianity is perceived as a white english religion, so its all about taking money from the missionary and then after 2 months when they leave, going back to kovil (tamil word for temple). Teresa was among the most covered christian activists in india and even in west bengal where she was living, just 2.5% are x-tians. About north east VHP cant do much, because even traditionally those guys are not hindus, they are animists. and i mean, i cant accept those chinese looking snake eaters as hindus any day.
@ murali
Hinduism dominated from kandahar in the west to Bali in the east. There are four idealogies, communism, marxism, missionary christianity, and jihadi islam that are attacking hinduism. These four idealogies are self-proletyzing, and hinduism isnt, therefore the incongruity in the hindu response. Nobody is saying, take Indonesia back into the hindu column, BUT we can protect what’s left, especially the church fueled insurgency prone North East. Does it make one wonder, that only non-hindu dominated areas are insurgency prone ?
“About north east VHP cant do much, because even traditionally those guys are not hindus, they are animists.
Arunachal pradesh is STILL 90% hindu.
“and i mean, i cant accept those chinese looking snake eaters as hindus any day.”
Lets avoid copying the KKK, and work towards the tranformation of hindu society.
Aryan,
Ok fine, I agree with you. But lets work in reality if at all we have to do something. Arunachal is 90% hindu because of anti-conversion law there. and moreover i doubt if it is 90% hindu, it is mostly animist check the details. There is no point talking of past. Because past could rig up things against hinduism also. In tamil nadu where i come from apart from brahmins no-one considers himself a true hindu in the aryan sense, though they go to temple. There is not an iota of doubt that hinduism was not the oldest religion to be practiced in tamil nadu at least. They practiced a dravidian code based on some local ways. And even in Gita Krishna Says “Tumhare ye bhav un-arya hai” when he criticises Arjuna for becoming cowardly on the battle field. The southerners in india are by no-means aryans. Anyway lets not digress from the topic, Hindusim has survived the worst mughal rule and british-xtian invasion and we can easily survive now. But this time we should do it politically, we are not going to get anything by rambling on things here. Lets all vote BJP to power. Moreover i looked at election stats out voting % is abysmally low at 59%. All minorities vote to avoid BJP but the majority stays at home. getting voter ID card also is a big pain. Lets get these done and there is no way congress will be in power. we need to increase voting%, thats the need of the hour. regarding communism, ask those bengalis who call themselves intellectuals living on the bangla border and voting for prakash karat and his spineless party for 30 years. In my opinion if getting rid of bengal can save bharat lets do it. Every where you look at a pseudo secularist he is a bengali by default except swapan dasgupta. Sagarika Ghosh, Pranab Roy, Shoba De all man all of them these secularists are from bengal, so called intellectual shit pieces.
by the way aryan,
just out of curiosity has VHP been successful in converting any bunch of muslims back to hindusim? That will be very interesting and heartening to know.
@murali
what’s wrong with animists ? who cares if there are buddhists, jains, sikhs running around in India, these relegions are India based, they’re not the problem. It’s the same with any second generation or older converts muslims or christians, it’s wrong to convert them. It’s the evangelist bastardization of indians that’s the issue, it causes problems, causes alienation, further divides an already divided populace, it may fuel insurgencies and it has to be stopped and reversed. One has to study the church’s divisive role in Vietnam and Korea to truly comprehend this issue.
The Aryan Invasion theory has proven to be hogwash. it was invented by macaulyist historians and propogated by marxists to destroy india’s innate sense of greatness. Nothing great like vedas or great indian culture could come from india, that was the argument. gujus and punjus have diff ways of practising hinduism too, doesnt make them any less hindu ‘historically’. Besides it fits right into british divide and rule, hindus v muslims, dravid v aryans, brahmins v lower castes.
http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/aid/vedicevidence.html
http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/aid/davidduke.html
http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/index.html
On communism and bengal, it has to be said your argument is very tempting. One has to understand the draw to communism for poor people in bengal and kerala is due to land reforms undertaken there unlike any other state in India. But all ‘good’ things have to end, so communism in India too will end, especially after the recent disasters. if it doesnt we can always fumigate the commies.
my apologies to yossarin for going completely off topic.
@murali
Regarding the survival of hinduism, one does not need to read ancient history, just looking at pakistan and bangladesh’s recent events can give a fairly good idea as to what ‘could’ happen. I think the 1971 hindu genocide in bangladesh should be warning enough.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP8.HTM
http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/243
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6367773.stm
@Aryan
Dude, lets talk of a solution. Just for how many years will we keep talking about the 1971 genocide and stuff. Our army is way too powerful for pakistan or bangladesh to crush them if need arises. So instead of popular hate forums, lets get to business. As I said since the christian % is getting lesser, VHP is doing their job, so lets stop hovering over the church and mullahs for now. The point is we need a strong government at the center so that we wont have these issues. This is something in our hand. We never had all these discussions to this extent when the NDA was in power. Lets spread the word around to get BJP to power. Trust me its not easy, I am not able to convince my parents nor my grandpa to vote for BJP, they are still gandhians. I am tired of these people. But we should try, because my electoral calculations (i am not basing them feelings, but on just some tables with previous election results) say that this time BJP can potentially single handedly manage 200 seats. With stable NDA allies they can easily form the govt.Regarding CPM in bengal and kerala you have a point. But Communists have done many blunders even before but were never kicked out of power, mainly becos there is no alternative in bengal and i really doubt if they can be kicked out this time either.
[...] as the controversial delineation of electoral boundaries, government conttansenggiaw.blogspot.comNagaland Polls 2008 – Bold new ideas need of the hour In yesterday??s curtain raiser by Offstumped it was clear that the public debate in Nagaland over [...]
Murali,
>> As I said since the christian % is getting lesser
come on, this is ridiculous. The % of Christians decreasing just means just that family planning is working among them. I wonder how this stat can be used to claim conversions are going down.
conversion in the north-east cannot be compared with conversions in TN. most of the conversions in TN are among dalits, fishing communities etc. these communities obviously have been abused by Brahmanical Hinduism and are free to choose any religion to get back into the mainstream as it were. there is not much evidence to suggest that tribals in TN are embracing Christianity. atleast not that I know of.
the problem in the north-east is the absolute apathy and criminal negligence of the governments and the civil society in the rest of the country, in not helping the animist population to withstand the assault from organized religions. converting a tribal person in the north-east is a crime against humanity. well, what else can we call the cultural/religious exploitation of vulnerable populations?
yossarin,
yeah, its really abominable that every election in the NE is being wasted on identity politics. i wish economy had dominated the debate. wonder why nobody is talking of the Look east policy, mekong ganga, burmese gas pipeline etc.
The christian population is not reducing;its a deception;they do not reveal the conversions.One american journal ( i think new york journal ) says it is 10 %. We have to be careful.
Once the foreign fund that is flowing in is choked than we can see conversion on decline.
Comment #2.
“BJP/RSS should take up the re-conversion of the nagaland christians back to their hindu fold.”
Re-conversion to what? Which caste basket do you put them? Achyut, Untouchables? What the purose of re-conversion? Use them as Hindu vote-banks only?
1. Remove barbaric Caste System first
2. Treat all Hindus equally as sisters and brothers
3. Shut up those, who bark like street dogs saying I am Brahmin, Tamil Brahmin, Terror Brahmin, Dog Brahmin, Donkey Brahmin, Arab brhamin, ..
4. Make Castism a punishable offence. First slaped them with shoes on their faces, then put behind bars. Those so-called Brahmins bark as Brahmin, put them behind bars for min 10 years.
If you can do that, then talk about re-conversion. All NE people will return back to original roots, but we first must reform ourselves.
Make a vow, you will never practice castism and discriminate in the name of caste. You will identify yourself as a Sanatani Hindu (I am using thr term from Gandhiji), nothing else.
National Anti-Castism Law is a must. Under the law anyone practice castism must be punished with min 10 years rigorous jail.