Manipur is a classic case of where the grammar of her society has gone wrong in every respect, internal and external. We know till about the early mid-1970s, we went to the local schools with half-boiled hanggams in our stomach, with only a pair of school uniforms, with a slipper at most, but we were happy, and so were our parents.

Now students go to the school other than the local ones, go by van or buses, have more than one pair of uniforms, and wear ties and shoes, but nobody is happy. Neither our children nor we the parents are happy. We know till about three decades back, most of the roads in the valley (the mountains do not yet have roads) were fit only for thikwaters and were plying only infrequently, but all were happy and satisfied. Now we have wider roads in the valley, sexy buses, lovely private cars and what not, but everybody is unhappy and there is grudge all around. We listened only to the radigot, and not used to the cable television of today. But the people were happier with the radigot than with whatever they have access to now.

Manipur is now a case where any change would lead to a rise in mass feeling of dejection and unhappiness. The state has expanded, but every interaction with it produces a feeling of revolt and rebellion. Something has really gone wrong with the grammar of society for interactions, dynamics and transition to convey any positive meaning to the people of the State.

The Proximate Factor: The immediate factor which has drawn me to this thinking is a leikai mamma of mine who, I am informed, has just left for his permanent place of rest in the Kingdom of God. Khundongbam Mamma Hera was a Mukna Jatra of his time at the kingdom level, and used to enjoy the awe of the sports loving people and the love of the King. But in the so-called transition of the state from one of an independent kingdom to another of a ‘modern democracy’, he lost his everything. His prestige and reputation of an earlier era became an asset of burden for him, which might have prevented him from undertaking something remunerative, I am sure. His human capital in the form of mukna skills rather became a tool to be used covertly against him – pretend to need him by the society during some annual rituals, and abuse his relevance at other times. I know he did not live a happy man towards the end of his life, and, am sure, he did not die a happy man. I am also sure that this is the fate which has befallen most of his genre during the last half a century. The transition could not protect their earlier level of relevance, satisfaction and happiness.

Now who are the happy and prosperous men? The people who had taken advantage and prospered in the transition can be divided into two groups. First, we had a small minority of Imphal population (in the very restricted sense of people living within about three kilometers of the centre) who were shrewd and trickery. This group had some education as well. Secondly, this group naturally co-opted a second group of parasites and partners in arms from areas beyond the restricted Imphal. These two together we may call the Collusion.

The Collusion was not the natural product of an evolution of the society; rather it was a conglomerate of parasites lurking all along for rents using their shrewdness and power of trickery. The transition was the most opportune moment for them to exploit and establish a social order based increasingly on exclusivity, for which Manipur has a long root.

But the society also had people with vision in every locality, like the Chaoyaima of Thoubal and Megha of Malom (there were people like them in the interior areas of Manipur as well), who tried to evolve an inclusive society based on the inherent local trust of the population.

The Fight: The social fight of the society during the 1950s to the early 1970s was between these two forces of visionaries and of the Collusion. In the beginning, the visionaries carried the day, and the State saw schools and other social bodies emerging to take the people to the future. But quite unfortunately for all of us, the Collusion increasingly became the more successful group. So we have now landed in a situation where all our hard-built institutions – schools, clubs and local trust – have become non-functional and trivial. It is as if the society has chosen to collapse.

The New Chief Minister: It is this absolutely unfortunate situation which the new Chief Minister after the elections would have to address. He should be attempting to influence and transform choice of the society. So the person is now significant. In the context of the limited choice given to us, I would like to indulge in my pick. I would not like an Imphalwallah to be a Chief Minister at this juncture, for shrewdness and exclusivity cannot be the bases of administration at this critical juncture of the society. I would not like to vouch for Chandramani either. No doubt, no other person in recent political history had commanded as much expectation and hope from the people as he had till recently, and to that extent, no other politician has betrayed the people of Manipur as he has. He is the only one who could have emerged as the unquestioned leader of both the valley and the mountains, but he chose to finish himself. He has shown no remarkable achievement, and does not prove to be a person with guts. Even in the latest case of the pay anomaly issues of the State government employees, which he had handled, we now have more mess than less as his legacy.

This leaves me with only two choices. I would like either Utlou Chaoba or Gaikhangam to be the next Chief Minister. My pick of Chaoba is because of his strong sense of purpose, assertiveness and clarity of his stand. Witness the area around the Palace. The stint at the Centre and other setbacks must have taught him to take care of the negative image people have of him. He has however to be careful of the Imphal elite for his strength of clarity and sense of purpose cuts through their shrewdness and exclusivity rather than the other way round. If Congress forms the next government, Gaikhangam should be the leader for political economic reasons. We urgently need a leader from the mountains, who leads the whole State and provides a fresh perspective to the developmental challenges facing the people.