Even as we are ready to step into a new year, we need to look back at the year just gone by so that the same mistakes and error of judgements are not repeated and despite the all round decay that was witnessed in 2007, one trend that took a heavy toll on human lives as well as on the working ambience of quite a number of professionals was the rise in factional fights amongst the armed outfits.

We agree that there were many ills in 2007 that should not be repeated but a hard, close look at the happenings of this year will leave no one in doubt that the most disturbing trend was the factional stand offs that was witnessed all over.

Whether the outfits were ethnic based or had a pan Manipur outlook, quite a number of armed groups had to suffer the ignominy of factionalism and in the fight to gain legitimacy, we saw how a number of precious lives were snuffed out.

Not only was the infighting amongst the different factions disturbing, but it also took a heavy toll on the working atmosphere of quite a number of professionals engaged in different fields.

The bomb that was gifted to the office of The Sangai Express sometime in October was a direct fall out of the factional stand off between two groups of an underground organisation.

The number of days that the media in Manipur had to suspend publication as well as go off the air, was all related to the pressure mounted by the different factions.

Government departments too suffered from the impact of the falling out of former comrades in that they had to deal with two set of groups, operating under the same name.

This problem gets all that more accentuated when it comes to matter of financial dealings and awarding of contract works. Traders and businessmen too were hit hard by this trend as they had to contend with two groups working under the same name.

In short, what factionalism do goes more than the internecine killings but also disturb the working atmosphere of quite a large number of people. On the other hand such trend do nothing except cast a doubt on the credibility of the organisation concerned.

Even as we pen down this write up, there is no let up in mud slinging between two factions of a hill based organisation.

In fact so venomous are the charges and counter charges that most of the words and sentences used to deride the other group can be termed as ‘hitting below the belt’.

Factionalism is a fact of any armed outfit in the North East region and even the dreaded LTTE had to suffer a split when one of its key men established his own territory some time back.

The issue however is when factionalism becomes the rule rather than the exception, then it signifies that something is seriously wrong somewhere.

In fact at times, the culture of factionalism has come to be more and more like the musical chair being enacted by the political class in their bid for power and Ministerial berths and this is something which is not expected from people who have taken up the gun and put their lives on the line for a cause they espouse.

Almost all the armed groups in Manipur have at one point of time or the other had to suffer the scourge of factionalism and while factionalism may arise due to differences in ideology and political beliefs, the tragedy is manifold when factionalism seems like an off shoot due to power struggle or to have a bigger share of the cake.

This, unfortunately seems to be true in the case of some ethnic based armed groups.

Many leaders of the armed outfits have analysed the reasons and factors for the rise of factionalism, and while there can be no black and white answer on how to prevent this ugly development, the tragedy is no one, least of all some underground leaders, are willing to acknowledge that factionalism does nothing except pose a question on how sincere they are to the lofty cause and ideals they champion.