Imphal : ‘Manipur has always been a state where all the 35 communities have lived very peaceful way. Suddenly this kind of situation and the suffering the people are facing now in the state is difficult to explain. We are peace loving people in Manipur and suddenly the whole cultural integration has been broken and this did not happen in one day’ echoed Ratan Thiyam, the Padma Shree awardee and the doyen of Manipuri theatre.

All the art and cultural fraternity led by Thiyam sat on a sit-in protest and they are going to submit a Memorandum to the President of India and others at New Delhi within this week Taking hard on the Government of India, he appealed that the Centre should intervene at the earliest.

He echoed ‘We don’t need a food package, we want human peace package. It is very important for us. It is a very alarming situation and unwanted problem, orphans crying, tears of people, without water, in war we create more prostitutes because it will have repercussions and we are witnessing so many relief camps. They should be settling back to their home”.

Further, he said the most tragic part is in spite of this burning and alarming situation the Prime Minister is mute, he is not uttering a single word, what is your political problem, I don’t understand. Why don’t you utter a single word? They are not thinking about us.Hitting the national media he questioned why they are not seriously covering the incident at the level it should be done.

Further, he also said that ‘We are a small state and we are looking for solutions and I on behalf of all the art and culture fraternity request the President and PM to solve the problem and we request all the politicians and understand about this small state and now we feel we are neglected state. It is only during the election you remember us nothing more than that”.

An agitated Thiyam who was visibly pained by the happening around echoed ‘ We need a human solution, we need peace and the centre is not doing enough even though what the state is doing is not enough. We feel we are not second class citizens but we have become a third class citizens’. On the immigration problem, he said that this has to be solved by the Centre and state governments. 

Radhakumar the retired IAS officer stated that Government has the Foreigners Act and government has to decide how to implement it. We do not want a fragmented Manipur but a united Manipur. We have been living united for last two thousand and why now suddenly this happening, he questioned.