Hotels and Resorts

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Today, the battle for political supremacy in Nagaland is being fought in hotels and resorts. Who is gaining out of this turmoil? Who else but the owners of the hotels and resorts! One wonders how much the bills have amounted to. I am sure the hotels are making profit much more than the Hornbill festival days because the guests this time are all VIPs and it has definitely been longer than many Hornbills put together. Hotel bills are not the primary concern of the present political upheaval. But the main purpose which drove our elected representatives to these camps is as idiotic as being concerned for the hotel bills. There were charges of kidnappings and house-arrests, not in some shabby hideout, but in the fanciest hotels in the State. There were instances of ditching camps and the name of a certain legislator has become a verb to refer to such acts. The idiocy continued when they came back and sang ‘How Great Thou Art’ in their hotel after all the 59 voted in unison and made a mockery of the whole episode in the floor of the Assembly. Dimapur campers went back to their resort, and there were stories of changing resort for change of ambience, and certain TA/DA being handed out to keep members from running away. This was not the first time when political battles were fought in hotels and resorts. Not long ago, there was a flee to Kaziranga where the legislators also celebrated Mothers’ day in the particular resort.   

It is primarily a fight for money and power. I have been reading on Money, Sex, and Power for a future project. And what is unravelling in our State politics is fitting so well into the text that this drama is all about the fight for money and power and nothing else. It is not any clash of political ideology, principle, governance, or whatever. Shurhozelie stated it so well when he said these memorable lines in the victory program where they sang the hymn mentioned above: ‘This time is found to be little different, the crisis is costlier in terms of time, money and services. Very confusing rumours spread till the last minute generated by the dissident group. The party men and women, who stood together to counter the most complicated crisis created by the Money Power leaders, complicating the established law and mimicking our stand by the dissident. We are aware that these few rich peoples backgrounds, including their parents, so their accumulated wealth used against party government for their selfish gain is an amassed fund when they were in power’. No more need to be said.

The alternative is the same as the present problem. Ever since the congress party voted in favour of the government on February 5 floor test, their voice seems to be decreasing to whispers for some certain arrangement, certain plump portfolio, certain cabinet berth, and so forth. So, there is no better alternative. It doesn’t matter if the Kohima camp, Dimapur camp, Congress, BJP, or whoever takes the lead. It’s all the same. Someone joked that we are fortunate to be living in this time to witness this political melodrama unfolding before our very eyes. But the joke is on us too and has been a very costly affair for all of us. It is much more than the money spent on hotel bills that were lost.