ITANAGAR, 8 Sep: The All Nyishi Students’ Union (ANSU) has given a week’s ultimatum to two individuals – Chow Khatiya Manpoong and Tarh Tahar – to apologise for making statements against the ANSU and the Nyishi Elite Society (NES).
Briefing the media during a press conference at the press club here on Thursday, ANSU president Nabam Dodum excoriated Manpoong for a video of his, describing the Nyishi tribe as ‘Dafla’. The video has gone viral on social media.
“The ANSU has always made an attempt to be in harmony and work for the interest of all the tribes of the state, other than the Nyishi community. Manpoong, a teacher in Namsai, should be aware of the history of the Nyishi community on how it emerged to be renamed from Dafla to Nyishi which took five decades to do so, and a lot of leaders were associated on it’s contribution, including late CM Dorjee khandu, and the then president of India Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, among other leaders, in April 2008,” Dodum said.
Referring to the protest staged by the Panchayat Restoration Andolan Committee, during which the ‘Dafla’ remark was made, Dodum said that, as a supporter of DCM Chowna Mein, Manpoong could have supported him without defaming the Nyishi community.
The ANSU demanded that Manpoong issue a written apology, on the front pages of the local dailies, within seven days.
“Manpoong should also write about the history of the Nyishis in the apology letter,” he said, adding that the ANSU will not accept any apology on social media.
The union also demanded an apology from former Arunachal Against Corruption president Tarh Tahar over an audio clip making the rounds on social media, in which Tahar is allegedly heard saying that there is no social audit of the ANSU and the AAPSU “whenever they initiate any protest.”
Dodum also appealed to the Tarh Welfare Society to “not encourage persons carrying such motive in their clan or society.”
He said that the ANSU will write to the Nyishi Elite Society to “defer Tarh Tahar from attending any social programmes of the Nyishis.”
Tahar has also been asked to issue a public apology through the print media within seven days.
The ANSU meanwhile requested the people of the state to “refrain from communal disharmony.”
