The last five years of Ibobi’s administration was not at all known for efficiency and quality of governance. Nevertheless, he has again come back to power. This is exactly what should be taken as food for thought for the society watchers of Manipur.

I would consider the present Ibobi as just lucky beneficiary of democracy while at the same time saluting the resilience and the capacity to backlash of the people of Manipur to diktats and imposition. The outcome of the present elections is full of implications for the government, social groups and organizations in both valley and mountains.

It is Here: It is in this context that I want to put to question the validity and sustainability of a certain outlook of the Indian political leaders and the military establishment.

Let me start with the National Games recently held in Guwahati. The performance of the Manipuris in the meet and the behaviour of the national media establish one thing for sure. The Indian national political leaders as well as the military top brass have all along doubted the nationalism and patriotic feeling of the Manipuris.

Well the nationalistic involvement as well as nationalistic performance of the Manipuris in the recently held meet should be enough to do away with such doubts for good.

Rather the question to be asked is: Who is less nationalistic and less patriotic – the Manipuris doing well in the National Games or the print as well as electronic Indian national media giving prominence to the New Zealand-Australia cricket series rather than the National Games?

For the Indian electronic and print media, there was nothing national about the National Games, which was in any case less important than the Ash-Abhi gossip. But it is the same media who would time and again join the Indian political leaders and military top brass in paternalistic preaching for nationalism on the Manipuris.

Secondly, it has been a time worn argument for the retention of the stupid 1958 legislation and a continuous blame on the Manipuris that there is no distinction between the insurgents and the common people. Besides the military generals, even the previous Governor of the State (anyway one of the worst Governors the State has had) spoke openly that every family in Manipur is an insurgent family.

I am not sure if he included his own family as well, as his is the first family of the State! I would ask of them to have a close look at the outcome of the just concluded elections in Manipur. Starting from mountainous Tamenglong to the valley, what was it if not a backlash to diktats? Hats off to people and democracy!

The lucky Ibobi, he is really lucky, is a beneficiary of these circumstantial interactions and interplay of countervailing forces. He is back to power or rather retains his power not because of any of his accomplishments, but due to the firm assertion of authority by the people themselves.

Ibobi’s Role: This being so, Ibobi owes the people a lot. It is now the period for him to prove his mettle and pay back the people in terms of good policy and sincere administration. At the end of the day he cannot take the plea for still another term for the unfinished task. He has to deliver now.

The first priority for Ibobi is his own application of mind on how to improve upon his “percentage” image at least to some percent. His acting in this direction would itself go a long way. Having said this let me go to other critical social issues.

Though Marx has been brought to disrepute by the Marxists and the inaccuracy of few of his predictions, yet some of his insights are just wonderful. He saw violence as nothing but “the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one”. We cannot think of a better description than this of the recent electoral process. Remember the various diktats characterising the electoral process, and look at the outcomes. Tamenglong is an exemplary symbolic case.

What all this implies is that the society of Manipur, both in mountains and valley, is now characterised by deep internal trade-offs. There are ruptures developing to the old regime.

We now see features of the old regime, like continuation of group supremacy and intolerance of deviation, trying hard to retain their hold in the face of winds of change. In this process, we now see many civil society organisations breaking into the monopoly of the state to use violence, in addition to the various abuses of force by the security forces.

It is now the sole responsibility of Ibobi to hasten this process of change while at the same time giving direction to the change. I understand that, if he is willing, he has the capacity to shunt off everybody and drive for the objective he wishes to achieve.

We really want him to put this capacity to cause of the state and people, and thereby history celebrating him for right reasons.