Guwahati: Award-winning Manipuri filmmaker and actor Priyakanta Laishram has cried for help, questioning the people of India, and the authorities “whether the remaining residents of Manipur should strip off to attract the attention of the entire nation”.
This comes after 79 days of horrific crimes and atrocities in Manipur when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several Bollywood celebrities finally decided to speak up only after a video of two Manipuri women being paraded naked in full public view went viral on social media.
Earlier when the video first surpassed, Priyakanta Laishram also stood up for the female victims, denounced violence against women, and asked for the harshest punishment of the perpetrators.
He also strongly denounced the way that women have always been used, humiliated, and tortured to appease the ego and misogyny of the patriarchal system.
However, as the entire country begins to concentrate only on a single incident while ignoring the core issues that are disrupting peace for the past 2 and a half months, he screams for help.
Priyakanta asked, “Do the remaining residents of Manipur need to strip off, paste photos of the other victims of various heinous crimes on our naked bodies, and appear before the media to garner the attention of the entire country and demand justice for the people of Manipur?”.
Talking about the ignorance and biased viewpoints of the people in power, he further asked, “Are the people in power not going to care about the hundreds of victims that we’re brutally murdered unless they see more naked bodies? Is that all it takes?”
“We are strongly against the recent viral video of two women who were sexually assaulted and worked together to identify and apprehend the offenders, but we are also against the fact that the country as a whole is completely clueless about the war that has been raging from the past 2.5 months, speaking only about the viral video while continuing to ignore the heinous crimes taking place in the state,” he added.
“Given the collective ignorance, negligence, poor research, and non-stop biased reporting, which only serves to add more fuel to the already burning situation, we fear that nothing will help us resolve the problem. Please, please, please help us. This is a sincere cry for help. The state and its people have lost everything,” Priyakanta pleaded.