Cherry Blossom and Sangai : Looking beyond Imphal
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 21 2018 -

It is the biggest festival of Manipur.

No arguments over this and it is in line with this fact that the State Government is leaving noting to chance to let it live up to its name.

The Sangai Festival is on.

What is encouraging to see is the efforts of the BJP led Government to take the festival beyond Imphal and make it more inclusive by extending it to Lamboi Khongnangkhong, Khuman Lampak and Keibul Lamjao.

Making it more attractive is the decision to include the Cherry Blossom festival of Mao in the Sangai Festival and this is the way to go about it.

Sangai Festival named after the State animal Sangai and Shirui Lily Festival held in recognition of the State flower and clearly the BJP led Government seems to have got its priorities right.

However it remains to be seen how serious the Government is about protecting some of the species that are found only in Manipur.

What steps have been taken up to protect and nurture the Pony of Manipur, which is a kind of its own in the world ?

Name a festival after it or do something to ensure its survival ?

It was not for nothing why The Sangai Express deemed it fit to carry a lead news story on the state of the Manipuri Pony under the caption ‘Manipuri Pony pushed to the verge of extinction’ in the November 18th edition.

Conservation policy on paper but nothing at the ground reality to ensure the well being of the ponies and this is the sad reality that is facing Manipur in the face today.

This story was highlighted just a few days before the Sangai Festival to drive home the point that in as much as the biggest festival in the State is named after the State animal, something should be done to ensure the survival of the other animals found only in Manipur.

It is therefore perfectly in line to raise the question of how much efforts have been made to ensure the survival of Sangai in the light of the frenetic efforts made to promote the Sangai Festival.

Efforts must be there, but it should not be confined to paper work only and in the run up to the Sangai Festival it was disheartening to see that not much efforts or publicity drives were seen to promote the Sangai.

In short the biggest festival of the State cannot and should not be seen without the Sangai.

In as much efforts were made to promote the festival, one hopes similar efforts are made to protect the State animal.

And talking about the Sangai Festival, not much was heard about the Cherry Blossom festival of Mao in the run up to the biggest festival of the State.

Is it going to be a case of the Cherry Blossom Festival of Mao being subverted by the Sangai Festival ?

This is where the Government needs to step in and ensure that similar coverage is also given to the festival which is synonymous with Mao.

Let the Cherry Blossom Festival not be reduced to a footnote of the Sangai Festival.

This is where the idea of celebrating the two festivals simultaneously will prove to be fruitful.

Care should also be taken to ensure that the Sangai Festival is not reduced to an occasion of VIPsm where those with VIP cards are found throwing their weights around.