Manipur violence: Eminent theatre personality seeks religious leaders' proactive role to restore peace

As tension and anxiety continued gripping the ethnic violence-hit northeastern state of Manipur, eminent theatre personality Ratan Thiyam has appealed to the religious leaders of the state to take up a proactive role in restoring peace and stability.

Thiyam, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award winner in 1987, said that considering the grave situation that Manipur is currently facing, all religious leaders from temples, mosques and churches should try to find means to restore peace.

"I urge them to help the government in bringing both the parties of the conflict to the negotiating table," he said.

The theatre legend in a statement further appealed to the state government at the Centre to show their genuine commitment and empathy during this time of crisis in Manipur.

He said: "It is my earnest request to the Centre to continuously send different Ministers one after another to study the situation and understand the ground reality."

A former Chairperson of the National School of Drama (from 2013-2017), Thiyam, 75, further said that common people are facing different hardships, and they are immensely affected by price rises and scarcity of essential commodities.

At such a critical juncture, all the learned experts of the government should do their best to find a way out of the present crisis, he observed.

The internationally acclaimed theatre personality also appealed to all the ministers and MLAs to jointly visit the affected places and listen to the grievances of the people.

Stating that the current situation arises from a discord between two communities, Thiyam, who is one of the leading figures of the "theatre of roots" movement in Indian theatre, appealed to both sides to calm down and come to the negotiating table.

"The possibility of such an arrangement should be seriously looked upon by the state government," he said.

Expressing his disappointment over the weakness of the intelligence network of the state, he said: "Had the Intelligence been alerted about the violence in time, the present situation could have been avoided."

Thiyam further made his appeal to all the people of Manipur, who belong to the 34-35 plus communities and who have been living together as brothers for the last hundreds and thousands of years, to "intervene in this critical scenario in Manipur's history to find a solution to bring peace again".

He added that the clash occurred due to a misunderstanding between just two communities, and both sides will surely listen and act when the rest of the communities intervene.

Earlier, Olympic medal-winning boxer and Rajya Sabha member Mary Kom appealed to the people of Manipur to maintain peace and harmony and restore normalcy.