Hornbill Festival: The need to get it right

The severest criticism of Hornbill Festival is perhaps not in the things which happen during the 10 days festival period but in what ‘does not happen’ during the remaining 355 days of the year. Nagas celebrate many festivals and many of them are related to work. For example, there are sowing and harvest festivals. Sowing festival is celebrated because there is sowing, and harvest festival is celebrated for harvest. But if sowing or harvest festival is celebrated without sowing or harvesting, something is wrong. If the State carries out cosmetic works on the eve of Hornbill Festival, it is unlikely that people who suffer throughout the year for its inactions will suddenly cheer up on December 1, forget everything and join in the festivities. Nagaland needs to work much harder to deserve to celebrate the festival of festivals. We do not want to travel in roads painted black or splashed with water to avoid dust during Hornbill, we want the real stuff and we want it all through the year. We don’t want band-aid treatments and white-washed walls; we want real cures and real solid development works. We do not want to live in a temporary make-believe world for 10 days; we want things to be better in our everyday lives.   

 

Hornbill Festival 2015 kicked off in the backdrop of agitation for release of student scholarship, non-release of pay for NRHM staffs, RMSA recruitment controversy, and court examination of CM’s education qualification, just to cite a few newspaper headlines on December 1. For the tourists and first time visitors who may be reading the State newspapers in their hotel rooms or traveling in the interior parts of Nagaland, it is clear that things are not what how they are projected. Reality is harsh here in Nagaland. The journey of the so-called Naga caravan has been bumpy for as long as we can remember and our backs are sore. In our road of progress and development, the State and its machineries have a knack for getting it wrong. Be it recruitment/appointment and disbursement of salaries, development projects and construction works, delivering of services and justice, or way of public dealings and behavior, we seem to have the habit of getting it wrong. Hardly any State-run machinery, institution, or project is operating at optimum level. Our development projects are often ‘in the pipeline’ and ‘file is under process’; the standard government replies for non-performance. Once a construction project is made, it is constructed in the wrong location (to be occupied by ghosts and wild animals), walls start to wear off before inauguration, or there is low performance and zero maintenance. When criticized, there is no shortage of responses, one being that people should not have negative attitude!

Hornbill Festival has a place and it ought to be promoted. There are positive vibes about it for which there is large inflow of local and foreign visitors. There must be many things where we get it right, especially in terms of creativity and organization. But if we are not careful, it has the chance of a downward spiral, like any other government projects. We are starting to see signs of stagnation and losing of enthusiasm. For example, this year the Egyptian-god inspired advertisement for Hornbill Festival was a turn-off, so bad that you cannot just look at it. Is acceptance of such shoddy work of art by the government a sign that we are even losing our imaginations? It is high time that we listen to the critics and get things right. 

Most importantly, to let people warm up to Hornbill Festival, we need to see real work during the remaining 355 days. To celebrate the festival, we need to keep our house (State) in order and get things right. We need to earn the right to celebrate Hornbill Festival.