Let me start with an interesting anecdote. One of my teachers in the college asked me about two years back if I were thinking of marrying a hill-girl. He was putting this question in a lighter vein and considering my continuous articulation of the cause of developing the hills in various discussion forums and write ups. I really wanted to answer in the positive, and say I was thinking not only of one but of many. Being my teacher, I was restraint and could not give him this reply. Taking the metaphor a little farther, I would trace the cause of many of the hill-valley social tensions in Manipur to a long prevalent situation wherein the hills thought they were married to the valley, but only to discover that the valley did not care a hood. The valley had long been taking the hills as a show-piece rather than an equal partner in a family. This is where the forthcoming elections are crucial. These are important not in the sense of the elections as such, not even in the question of which party forms the government, but in the sense of the orientation, spirit and content of the development policies that would be emanating from the new government.

Our Tragedy: Here the immediate tragedy the people of the State face is the absence of alternatives – a situation where one ‘right’ faces another ‘right’. Most of the charges of the MPP against the Congress are right and vice versa. It is from such a bunch of representatives that we have to expect, and this time they cannot afford to fail. In so far as the moves by certain groups to “force” the electoral process in the hills, I would say that they are (a) nothing more than misplaced enthusiasm and wrongful articulation of people’s agenda; (b) an amalgamated symptom of the overall failure of the state in Manipur; (c) an effort by certain groups to make themselves continuously relevant in the absence of a viable development future; and (d) an indicator of where groups can become a social force with negative social implications.

Besides the general tragedy I have mentioned above, there is also another hill-specific tragedy. While the valley can continue ignoring the hills without much immediate negative impact, and while what happens in the hills may not appeal much to the valley psyche, we cannot say so in the case of the other way round. What happens in the valley socially, politically and economically impacts upon the hills, whether positively or negatively as the case may be. It is a case of the hills bearing the brunt.

The Two: It is these two, the failure of the state and the hills bearing the brunt that I would particularly like to be addressed and being alive to by whatever policy intervention the forthcoming government might adopt. The two are absolutely interrelated perspectives.

Since the next government would be assuming charge at a time when a new five year plan also gets started, nothing can be more opportune to articulate and pursue a development agenda unique to the State. The new plan also will have at the national level an objective of inclusiveness. In the State this should mean to make the hills inclusive in the development process. Given the geographical structure of the State, the rural-urban dichotomy approach has minimal relevance while the hill-valley dichotomy approach would be more relevant.

The next plan should be able to effectively address the hill-valley divide in development both in content and scale. This is all the more important with the Look East Policy becoming more of action now than rhetoric. The future growth of investment and trade will be decided by how much we are successful in this direction. Any positive stride in this direction would also make the valley feel the impact of anything happening in the hills politically, socially and economically without much time gap. Whatever one may say, the very history, geographical structure, social ties and economic imperatives tell us that the future of the valley and the hills are tied together; one cannot go far without the other.

What We Need: What we need from the next government is an active articulation and policy implementation along the above lines. The new government should be able to identify without much further delay the minimum specific location-wise interventions needed in the hills as a prelude to make any future development in the State inclusive. I know it is easier said than done, given the present outlook of all the agents of the State administration. But as I said above, this time the new government cannot afford to fail or we all sink together. It is here that we face the greatest challenge. We would definitely have some new faces in the new legislature, but the old guards are all likely to dominate the scene. We would certainly expect that the latter would rise to the occasion, give up some of their old habits, and shred some of their negative images. Their little movement in this direction would serve the State wonders.