Time to move out from the comfort zone : Failing to look beyond NE
- Sangai Express Editorial :: January 31, 2014 -

Very typical. The failure to look beyond the North East region.

In stating that the 'Narendra Modi wave' would have little or no impact in the North East region, Chief Minister Mr O Ibobi may be on the right track.

On the flip side this could well amount to admitting that the NaMo wave is indeed sweeping across the other parts of the country but would not affect his home turf.

To be fair, Mr Ibobi is not the only one to be afflicted by the 'North East' centric approach or outlook, but it says something significant about a Chief Minister who is into his third consecutive term in office, unable or unwilling to read to pulse beat of the people across the chicken neck.

A case of indifference to what is happening in other parts of the country or a case of sheer ignorance coupled with the failure to realise that when Delhi sneezes, Manipur inevitably catches a cold ?

If Manipur is to produce a political leader, whose appeal can transcend the State boundary, then this typical mindset has to go.

As a loyal Congressman, the Chief Minister of Manipur cannot afford to send out the message that he is only concerned with his home turf but is well acquainted and concerned with the political developments in other parts of the country, especially during the election year.

Fortunately for Manipur, the public seem to have come around to the idea of the importance of Parliamentary election and not simply satisfied with what is being played out on the political turf in Manipur.

Something which the political leadership of the day here need to learn.

There was also no novelty in the observation of the Chief Minister for this was the same thing which was echoed by his Deputy, Mr Gaikhangam a couple of weeks back.

Whether the NaMo wave makes a difference in the North East or not, recent developments indicate that the Congress is hard pressed to find a man who can match his vision of an India, his touch with the people and of course someone who can match or outmatch his lung power.

In a scathing editorial some days back, The Telegraph had unconditionally stated that Rahul Gandhi does not have it in him to be the Prime Minister of the country.

This observation, of course, was based on an interview with Arnab Goswami on Times Now and The Telegraph minced no words in stating that Rahul Gandhi had scored an own goal !

This is saying something a lot.

This could be one reason why the Congress is yet to officially project its Prime Ministerial candidate, which in other words mean that the BJP has stolen a march over it in the race to the Parliamentary election.

However it is still early days yet. By and large, Narendra Modi continues to be a highly polarised personality, with his supporters being a bunch of highly motivated loyalists while to his detractors he is a man not to be touched with a barge pole.

It is therefore amazing that the Congress, the oldest political party in the country, has not been able to capitalise on this. Seems more like a case of a leadership vacuum created by its failure to move out from the shadows of the Gandhi name.

Coming back to the typical mindset of the political class in Manipur, the poverty of ideas and political acumen to become a major player on the National political turf is abundantly clear in their hesitancy to move out of their comfort zone, that is the North East.

The Congress here may do a repeat of the last Parliamentary election and grab the two Parliamentary seats, but should the MPCC (I) be satisfied with just this ?

A question which only the Congress party can answer and none else.

But it is irrefutable that for Manipur to have a major say on issues which are important to the people, the political leaders here need to break out from the cocoon of their comfort zone and see how they can get a toe hold in National politics.

Such is the political compulsions of the day that taking comfort under the line that 'the NaMo wave would not impact the North East zone' would be nothing less than saying that the political leaders of Manipur and hence Manipur do not count in the larger scheme of things.