Seeking two years time : Too early to judge
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 07 2017 -

Give us two years time.

This was the State unit chief of the BJP, who is also the Rajya Sabha MP, K Bhabananda and the natural question that follows is, is this a climb down from the ‘We will do in 15 months what the Congress could not in 15 years,’ announcement delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run up to the Assembly election here ?

Tough to say but remember tall promises are a given in any run up to Assembly elections and with the State under the Congress for three consecutive terms, before the Assembly election was held, there was a purpose behind the strong campaign launched by the BJP and the Prime Minister’s announcement may be seen along this line.

So far the BJP led Government here has rung out the message that it has managed to reach out to the hill districts, best exemplified by the manner in which the tag, ‘communal Government’ has been dropped by the Naga civil society organisations, notably the United Naga Council, while referring to the Government of Manipur.

The BJP led Government too has managed to break the stalemate at Churachandpur and the bodies of the eight people killed after the State Assembly passed the three Bills on August 31, 2015 have been put to rest.

Moreover Chief Minister N Biren managed to pull out an ace from his sleeves in putting aside the 10th of every month as Hill Leaders’ Day where people from the hills can come and present their case to the Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers.

Celebrating the Shirui Lily Festival at the State level obviously went down well with the people, particularly with the people of Ukhrul so also the Barak Spring Festival at Senapati.

All instances to show that the BJP led Government has indeed made some efforts to reach out to the hill people.

Celebrating the Mera Houchongba event at the State level is another point that must have gone down well with the people.

However these are early days yet and if two years is what the State BJP president want the people to give to the Government to prove its mettle, then maybe it may just be too early to say that the BJP led Government has indeed managed to reach out to all sections of the people.

Give it some more time, say two years, to really gauge its performance.

This is about the BJP opening up to the people and Chief Minister N Biren has gone the extra mile to send out the message that he is indeed accessible which is a welcome move.

So while the BJP led Government has succeeded in opening up to different sections of the people, it remains that it still has a lot to deliver.

Piped drinking water which was a key point in the BJP’s pre-election slogan is still a far cry for many households in Imphal.

The working season is yet to set in fully but this should not blind the Government to the pothole filled roads all over the place at Imphal.

And if this is the situation in Imphal then one can imagine how the situation must be like in other parts of the State.

The demand to pass the needed Bills to regulate the inflow of non-local people into the State is still there and so is the demand that the State Government present a case to the Centre to include the Meiteis in the ST list of the Constitution of India.

Early days yet and sure the people can and should give some more time to the BJP led Government to deliver the goods and two years is good enough time to address some of the pressing issues mentioned here.