Manipur's shifting goalpost : Emerging political experts
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 30, 2025 -

Amazing to see the speed in which the goalpost keeps shifting.

Just 24 or so hours back the darts inscribed with the Words 'apologise' were aimed at the high security Raj Bhavan and now the skyline of Imphal is dotted with the emergence of so many political experts, each coming out with their own version on the composition of the next Council of Ministers!

So meticulously has some of the model been worked out that it is easily discernible that care has been taken to ensure that Members of each community find a place in the next Council of Ministers.

Comical and at the same time mind boggling to see how fast the priority of the people can change.

Just a few months back it was about narco-terrorism, then it was about the directive to cover up the word 'Manipur' on a bus carrying journalists to cover the Shirui Lily Festival, then came the call for the Governor to apologise to the people of Manipur for this blatant act of disrespecting the people and earlier it was about the free movement call etc, etc.

And so this is how it has been ever since Manipur exploded in violence and mayhem in the evening of May 3, 2023 and while the focus of the people keeps changing, what has remained constant is the manner in which the goalpost can change with so much dexterity.

The dust kicked up by the call for the Governor to apologise for the blatant act of covering the word Manipur on a Manipur State Transport bus seems to have blinded everyone now with another row of interests kicked up by the demand for the formation of a popular Government.

And life goes on as usual for the average people, folks who have to negotiate their way through all the unmotorable roads in the heart of Imphal city, not to speak about the sudden road blocks that one may encounter while on the way to office or hospital.

So it is amid the non-stop rain, the slush and mud and the pot holes that one has to negotiate to avoid breaking the axle of the wheel, that so many experts have emerged to forecast what the next Council of Ministers would look like.

This overrides the report carried by The Indian Express that the Centre is not likely to revoke President's Rule from Manipur.

A report which was based on inputs from reliable sources!

Not surprising for this is Manipur and the goalpost will keep shifting while no one seems to have given any thought on what exactly the Union Home Ministry officials conveyed when representatives of COCOMI and FOCS met them separately on May 27 at Delhi.

How does one aim to score when the goalpost keeps shifting?

Only Manipur can answer this and everyone seems to have adapted to this reality, but then again why not, for this reality has been scripted by the people themselves and no one else.

Or is it a case of a meticulously crafted design imposed so much so that people lose their orientation and not exactly know where the darts should be aimed ?

The answer could be anything, but what is apparent is there are just too many forces at work, each Seeking to dominate the thought process of the people.

And the forces, which are invisible but potent and can be felt, must be having a field day, charting out how to influence the thought process of the people.

And this is how it has been for decades and must be understood beyond the state of conflict which has already claimed over 250 human lives, displaced thousands with many others still missing.

So for the moment, the talk of the town is who is going to be the next Chief Minister, who would make it to the Council of Ministers and when President's Rule would be revoked.

Like many of the experts who have drawn up the list of the Council of Ministers, no one will have a definite or even a likely answer to the posers raised here.

And perhaps it is this uncertainty which has given enough room for the mischievous rumour mongers to have a field day and in the process hijack the thought process of the people.

To kill or neutralise an issue, kick up another issue is a line that seems to sit pretty well on the visage of Manipur, both as a place as well as a people.