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Front Page >> Editorials > Story

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365 Days Old And Going...
The Congress led Secular Progressive Front Government has already completed one year in office and even as the coalition Government goes about quietly ‘celebrating’ its successful completion of one year in office, it is pertinent to ask whether conditions have actually improved or worsened during the last 365 days. It is to the credit of Chief Minister O Ibobi and his colleagues that they have not gone over board to celebrate their first birthday in office (Remember the ostentatious manner in which the MSCP celebrated its foundation day when it was heading the United Front Government) but are touring the interior parts of the State to get a first hand account of the uncharted territories. 

This is not to say that everything has been hunky dory for the coalition Government particularly the Congress during the last one year. In fact the coalition regime had to undergo a severe test when the Congress engineered the split within its own coalition partners and merged the breakaway group with the party all in the name of strengthening the Government. Remember the bitter manner in which Lok Sabha MP Th Chaoba first parted ways with the SPF Government and later announced that the MSCP has been merged with the BJP. 

Remember how the then two MSCP MLAs, Vivek Raj Wangkhem and Y Erabot were declared unattached members before they were dropped from the Council of Ministers. Also remember how some of the MLAs of the coalition revolted when they were not included in the Ministry. All these developments at one time suggested that not all was well within the coalition Government and it is a relief that these developments did not snowball into major crises to rock the boat of the SPF Government. The lesson of the June 18 uprising in 2001 in the backdrop of the cease fire extension between the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India seems to be still fresh in the minds of our elected legislatures.

The SPF Government may have finished one year in office and Chief Minister O Ibobi may be sitting pretty in the CM's kursi but there seems to be no end to the problems besetting the State. From the 45 day economic blockade imposed on the two National Highways by the Movement for Tribal Peoples' Rights, Manipur to demand the posting of adequate teachers and doctors in the hill districts to the fund misuse allegations hurled by the All College Tribal Students' Organization to the protest launched by the All Manipur Students' Union over the non availability of prescribed common text books in the market, everything indicates that the State is neck deep in trouble.

It will not be long before the State is plunged into another round of acute fuel scarcity and it will not be long before the prices of essential commodities start hitting the ceiling. These issues may appear different, each concerned with their own specific ends, but what cannot be written off is the common thread that runs through all these issues and that is Government apathy. On more than one occasion, Chief Minister O Ibobi has made it clear that the SPF Government is committed to equal development of the hills and valley area. 

To translate this into action, all that the Government has to do is to start looking into the genuine grievances of the people. In years to come Ibobi will not be remembered for completing one year in office but by what he did for the people during the time he was the Chief Minister of Manipur. History can be harsh, but ultimately it is our action which will decide how history remembers us. The ball is in the court of the Chief Minister.

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)

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