Kangla, the ancient palatial site of the Kingdom of Manipur, is the symbol of the historical currents of Manipur, majestically, manifesting the process of civilization of the people of Manipur. The very root of her culture and religious beliefs are closely embedded with the growth of Kangla. A revisit into the glorious days and not-so-glorious days of Kangla reveals why it continues to be the very essence of Manipuriness.

Manipur has a proud and long history, dating back to ancient times with Kangla as her capital, in the heart of Imphal, standing as the most sacred place. The recorded history of Manipur began with Kangla. The place emerged as the seat of Power, Justice and Ideals. The importance of Kangla as the political, cultural and ritualistic place is still in the minds of the people.

While decided to implement National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus letter and spirit including the school times, Tripura government malls an idea to close down about a hundred schools from next academic session. The proposal was mooted after the government received the feedback that in some interior locations, schools have been running with equal number of students and teachers but having a huge infrastructure, maximum parts of those were left unused over the years. Tripura built more than 5000 school buildings and number of schools has become double in last 10 years that increased the demand for teachers and other staffs. Over the year, Education Department of Tripura has appeared to be the biggest sector of government employment in past decade. Though there was specific eligibility criteria laid down for recruitment of teachers in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, Tripura government did not follow it till 2012. There was a horizontal expansion of education in Tripura not by improving quality but in terms of infrastructure, buildings, recruitment of teaching staffs and recapitulating the strategy to narrow down, drop outs at school level.

Meghalaya a backwater in the North Eastern India, carved out of Assam, has in the last forty years or so, since its inception, has passed through the ups and down of Governance and political changes- the tug of war between the national and regional parties in gaining control of governance. Along these years, many insurgent groups have cropped up and were up in the arms, at the point of the gun demanding autonomy and even to the extent to secede from the Union. Many lives have been lost during the activities of the insurgent groups, however this year, there has emerged a ray of hope, that many of these groups have been liquidated and have come forward to surrender with their arms and ammunitions, many of these groups had sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh but now most of these insurgent groups are on the run. This year therefore saw that general peace is returning to Meghalaya.

A local TV journalist is being detained for 12 months in Manipur by the state government invoking provisions of a preventive detention law, the National Security Act 1980, NSA, for his expletives filled criticism of the BJP led state government, the state’s Chief Minister, N Biren Singh, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and the RSS posted on social media.

Considering, Kishorchandra Wangkhem’s similar misadventure where he heaped sharp anti-BJP and anti-RSS criticism in a non-journalistic fashion, landing him in jail under Section 500/500 (2) of the IPC, for the first time in August this year and the fact that he dared the state government to apprehend him again, his arrest was not surprising at all.