Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 28 Feb: The Nyishi Nyidung Mwngjwng Rallung (NNMR) has strongly condemned the deputy commissioner of Papum Pare district for allegedly not allowing performance oftraditional ritual and rites at the Nyokum Yullo ground in Nyokum Lapang in Sagalee.
In a press release, the NNMR on Friday claimed that the DC violated the government notification dated 9 March, 2024, which states that “Nyokum Yullo should be celebrated with ritualistic codes performed by traditional nyubus (priests), along with traditional altar with all the codal formalities.”
The NNMR further claimed that a “self-styledNyokum committee, headed by Christian community members, started opposing the actual traditional ritual and rites of Nyokum Yullo festival.”
“In spite of a series of negotiation meetings that were held, the Sagalee ADC could not implement its own decision,” it said.
It went on to claim that “when the matter was brought to DC Papum Pare, the DC convened a meeting on 21 February, 2024 in Sagalee and issued an order to perform rituals and rites of actual Nyokum Yullo festival at the premises of the Government Higher School Sagalee, which was later denied by the Papum Pare DDSE, as religious activities inside any educational institution is not permissible.”
The NNMR termed the action of the “self-styledNyokum Yullo committee a forceful conversion of religion and act of distortion of age-old Nyishi tradition and culture.”
It further urged all the DCs posted in Nyishi inhabited districts to “follow the gazetted notification issued by the government not to provide government grant-in-aid to non-rituals performed during Nyokum Yullo festival” and instead take legal action against the organisers.
It further appealed to the Nyishi Festival Council and the Central Nyokum Yullo Committee for “immediate actions on said issue for preservation and protection of Nyishi indigenous Nyokum Yullo festival.”
