Bringing the curtains down on Sangai fest
- Sangai Express Editorial :: December 03 , 2013 -

The question is, was the just concluded 10 day State level Sangai Festival a success or not ?

In terms of turn out, there should be no arguments over this, as literally and figuratively speaking all roads led to the venue of the festival, especially in the evening. The State Government is also under the impression that the Sangai festival was a grand success, especially in the backdrop of all the ethnic groups and communities participating in the festival, by way of opening stalls and staging their cultural shows at BOAT.

Top this up with the Chief Ministers of Sangaing and Mandalay provinces and some Chinese delegates attending the festival as well as the first foreign flight landing at Tulihal airport in connection with the festival and there are reasons to believe that the State Sangai festival has progressed from its earlier days.

However, it is not only the attendance of some foreign dignitaries and cultural troupes and foreign chartered flight that go on to define a festival, that too a State level one, with all its paraphernalia.

Official visits are but just the first step towards charting out a roadmap for tourist destination and this point should not be lost in the dust and din kicked up by the visit of some foreign officials.

Holding an event, that too at the State level, should have an end agenda. Going by this logic, then it should stand that the Sangai festival should not be just an event covering 10 days, but should have a goal, especially in the backdrop of the Look East Policy.

Significantly Chief Minister O Ibobi appeared to convey the message that the Sangai festival is not just a 10 day affair, but as is wont with the Government, he failed to go beyond the mundane.

There was no novelty in stating that growth in tourism industry would boost not only economic development but would also generate employment avenues.

A clear sign that the Chief Minister failed to think out of the box and bring to the public domain the specifics that the State Government has worked out to hardsell Manipur to the international community and open Manipur as a tourist destination through the Sangai festival.

This is where a certain degree of callousness is discernible to the keen observer.

This callousness came out in all its ugly manifestation in the Coffee Table Book that was brought out in line with the Sangai festival last year.

While the efforts to make the Coffee Table Book look glossy and attractive to the eyes are unmistakable, there was no mention of Shirui Lily in the said book.

An omission, it was, but in the omission of the Shirui Lily, the casual approach of the Government to the festival and its related activities was unmistakable.

In as much as the efforts of the Government this year to take the festival a notch or two higher are acknowledged, it did not find takers with numerous people and not without reason.

Maybe it was the unreasonably high cost of the rental charge of opening a stall inside the venue, but the quality of the food and the price charged at the eating joints defied logic.

As mentioned earlier, the festival also offered an insight on how the Government willingly or otherwise flouted its own laid down rules and regulations by letting domestic LPG cylinders to be used for commercial purposes.

This despite the fact that this newspaper carried a prominent story on it and followed it up for two consecutive days in the English edition.

The scourge of VIPdom also came out in all its ugly manifestations, especially on the last day, when the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and other high ranking officials and political babus were in attendance.

In one single stroke, the last day of the festival was turned into a VIP Festival, damn the public, without whose participation the festival would have taken a nose dive.

For the Sangai festival to be more meaningful in the coming years, the loopholes from the preceding years should be studied seriously so that it lives up to the billing of a State level festival, with an aim to put Manipur on the map of tourist destination.