Elections have become 'front door' of everything bad, says Naga Church leader
Source: Nirendra Dev *

Kohima, August 30 2022: Corruption is definitely a matter of concern, more so the electoral Corruption and it is noe a symbol of unfairplay in Nagaland, says a prominent Naga Church leader.

"Elections have become not the backdoor but the front door of all the Corrupt system that are there," NBCC general secretary Rev Dr Zelhou Keyho told this journalist in an interview here.

He said it is true 90 percent of Government authorities-- officials and Ministers in Nagaland are Christians.

"But the sadder part of the story is we have landed into a predicament wherein the Christian values are forgotten the moment people go out of churches" .

He admitted there is a critique that "what is the church doing" in a Christian society like ours.

"It could be a legitimate question but it's not that we are not preaching, we are not teaching", he said adding, there is a "dichotomy between spirituality within the church and spirituality outside church" .

To a question, he said - "We are struggling with that and the Clean Election movement launched by NBCC is one way of addressing the issue from a Christian perspective to fight Corruption" .

To another question, the reverend said there are issues of role of the civil societies, intellectuals and even media and political leaders because "many people just plunge in, not to change the system...but the real struggle seems is only to be part of the system" .

Thus, he maintains if there is a decay in the system, the same 'decay' continues.

However, he said, the launch of the crusade against electoral Corruption is a "positive stand" and there is very good response already.

Rev Zelhou also maintained that the corruption in Election in Nagaland did not happen or start with just 10 or 15 years back.

It perhaps started in the early or mid 1970s. "May be it turned bad in the 1980s, but now in the new 21st century it has really deteriorated" .

But he said it would be erroneous to give up.

"Slowly, Slowly we are gaining ground.

We are preaching amd we are also teaching younger lots.

Children above the age of 12 are coming...we are also circulating academic syllabus dwelling on these issues to young students in the private schools to start with," he said.

He further said -- "Clean Election movement is a long fight....I am in my sixties, I may not be able to see the desired results" .

In this context, he said problems are many and complex; "We cannot turn things overnight" .

NBCC has supplied study materials to school children private institutes for class seven and eight , he said.

The influential church body is also trying to bring out a Moral Science text book where these things will be presented from Class One onwards.

Nagaland has overwhelming presence of Baptist Christians.

To a question, the Reverend said things are different in Mizoram vis-a-vis church influence than it is in Nagaland because Mizos have a better organised and "centralised church system" whereas in Nagaland some tribal church bodies in districts may be more influential than the NBCC itself.

* The sender of this news can be contacted at nirendev1(AT)gmail(DOT)com .

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