Dissenting voices are always interesting and there is always something to learn from them, specially in a democracy, designed as it is to have the majority voice always carry the day. Although there can be no credible alternative to this, the danger in such a system is for dissents to remain ignored, unaddressed and unheard, particularly if the system is not sensitive enough or have inbuilt mechanism to take care of these. If the society was more homogeneous perhaps there would have been less problems; for then the communal tinge, (rightly or otherwise), given to political decisions would have been redundant. Instead the debates may have been restricted to just the academic merits of arguments presented. However, such a situation is still a far dream, but we will not stop believing that we will come close to making it a reality someday. As of the present, if the majority voice is too coarse and insensitive, the dissenting minority voices are also overtly sensitive and given too much to reading between the lines. Both extremes are equally incapacitating. Although ethnic differences will always remain, we do hope that someday a strong administration will erase all disparities in terms economic opportunities, so that these ethnic differences do not turn into ethnic divides.

The popular perception in the peripheries of the state, to be precise the hill districts, has been that there is an inverse proportionality between the prosperity in the valley area and the lack of it in the hills. As for the disparity in the material quality of life between the valley and the trills, it is a fact, but as to an inverse proportional relationship between the two; we prefer not to be too eager to jump into conclusions. For one, the prosperity in the valley is only relative to the states peripheries and this too restricted to the greater Imphal area only. Otherwise, it must be kept in mind that it is a small cake that we have before us to share. Imphal (the city and not the valley) gets a major share of this cake but there is an inevitability about it. Moreover, like all cities, it becomes a powerful magnet to attract economic activities and investments. A service sector boom has to happen in it, and because of it there are always much more jobs (not necessarily government jobs) available in a city, reinforcing in the process the gravitational force around it to attract more and more people and economic activities. This is the logic everywhere in the world and only the government can introduce regulatory mechanisms to create satellite centres for economic activities all over the state, so that the egalitarian nature of the overall development is maintained. As for instance we cannot expect specialized private health clinics to spring up in the districts as much as they are in Imphal, for there is always the question of economic viability. Likewise, doctors doing private practices would like to be in Imphal city, because this is where the customers are. We are sure these unseen forces work on entrepreneurs of both the hills and the valley. But an administration with vision must work to counter balance these natural tendencies. To extend the example of the health service again, if private clinics are rot viable in the districts, there is no reason why the government, which does not have profit as its motive, cannot make sure its own health centres run efficiently.