Ten prominent international sportspersons from the northeastern States have written an open letter to the people of the nation, asking for their support to end the economic blockade in Manipur. The letter, written just two days ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the strife-torn State, is as follows:
“Dear Fellow Indians,
We are sportspersons who love to play our sport and bring smiles to our people. We play for ‘India' and we play for the pride of our countrymen. There can be no bigger award for us than people cheering at our every move and praying for a win every time we play.
We believe that the sportspersons and common people shed tears of happiness and sorrow together. We are from this beautiful part of India, popularly known as the Northeast. We are simple people smiling our way to achieve our simple dreams. We love to play and win. We love to smile and show to the world how wonderful this corner of the earth is. But, alas, this is not the case always!
As much as we have enjoyed the privilege of representing you in various international platforms, today we are very saddened at what is repeatedly going on in our beloved and beautiful State of Manipur. The common people have been struggling every day for basic amenities of life. The four-month-long economic blockade and the resultant deadlock have affected normal life of every common man in this part of the country.
It's sad to see this great nation turning a deaf ear while lakhs of its citizens in one of the most vibrant States — Manipur — have been suffering under the dark shadow of the economic blockade for more than 120 days. It's painful to see no conclusive action from any of the responsible quarters for over four months when the people of Manipur were made to struggle for basic essential items, life-saving drugs and many more.
It's the same State which has produced some of the best sportspersons for this country, ones who have brought laurels to the nation at international platforms; it's the same State which has given some of the best performing art forms and artistes to the nation.
Today, they need your support. They need support from everyone to put an end to their sufferings and help them live a normal life.
We appeal to everyone to restrain from using economic blockade or other such extreme modes of protest on humanitarian grounds and find a solution through democratic means. At the same time, we appeal to our fellow countrymen and the people's representatives to join hands and help bring back Manipur on the growth path and make it an integral part of the development of our nation.
Let us, the people of this country, work towards rebuilding the jewel of India.
We hope that our honourable Prime Minister will sow the seeds of peace and lay the foundation of a prosperous Manipur when he visits the State on December 3, 2011.”
Signed,
Kunjarani Devi and Monica Devi (weightlifting), M C. Mary Kom (boxing), Baichung Bhutia, Gourmangi Singh, Govind Singh, Sushil Singh, Lalrindika Ralte and Rocus Lamare (football) and Sandhyarani (wushu).
