Though Chief Minister O Ibobi seems set to create history by becoming the first Chief Minister of Manipur to last the full term there is nothing to suggest that anything is going right for the State.

On the other the last few years have seen the emergence of different forces pulling the seams of the State in different directions and it is a wonder that the people have been able to flow along with the tide. Call it resilience or simply surrendering to the situation at hand but nothing is going right for the State.

Communal distrust has risen to a level where the norm is today about Us vs Them. In other words, everything is seen through the narrow prism of communal divides and nothing perhaps illustrates this better than the tension that gripped Churachandpur town after IGP Thangthuam was gunned down in an ambush on New Year's Eve.

To compound matter, serious allegations have been raised against two non-tribal underground organisations of mass raping a number of Hmar women at Lungthulien on January 16 this year.

The exodus of numerous Hmar villagers from the interior parts of Churachandpur to neighbouring Mizoram was also given a communal hue to a certain extent by elements who are out to sow the seeds of communal distrust and tension.

In fact today the accepted practise is to identify or view any issue through the prism of communal divides and the hill-valley dichotomy. The biggest challenge lying before the people of Manipur is how to neutralise such feelings that have been sown by vested interest parties.

The SPF Government may preen and pat itself on the back that it has been able to release the salaries of its employees on a regular basis and announce for all to hear and see that the financial situation has improved dramatically. However the performance of a Government should not be judged solely by its ability or inability to pay salaries to its employees.

Other than the communal divides that have started to take roots, what worries us is also the proliferation of numerous self appointed guardians of society each pursuing their own agenda.

Such a situation does nothing except add confusion to already confusing scenario in the State. The SPF Government has claimed that it was able to utilise 95 percent of the Plan amount in the last fiscal and while this is a major departure from earlier years, there is nothing much to even suggest that situation has improved at the ground level.

The State continues to reel under regular black outs and unscheduled load shedding. Water supply is a big joke in the far flung areas of the State and even in the capital city the taps run for only a few hours once or twice a week.

Allegations of excesses and torture against the security personnel particularly against the State forces have increased. It is not only the case of M Naobi that we are talking about but also about the hushed hushed tone that did the round when two civilians were shot dead at North AOC on New Year's Eve.

A good number of student organisations and other voluntary organisations too have come under the impression that it is within their rights to impose a bandh or a ban and economic blockade at the drop of the hat.

In short the cup of woes of the common people is running over and for a better Manipur, we definitely need to look inward and study the root cause of all our troubles.