Arunachal: Nyishi community calls off agitation

Itanagar, Nov 29: The month-long tussle between the Nyishi community and state chief secretary Tabom Bam over change of nomenclature from Dafla to Nyishi has been finally resolved, with the community deciding to call off the bandh after a marathon discussion here yesterday.

The decision to this effect was taken during a meeting between the Arunachal Pradesh government representatives and leaders of the Nyishi community as well as representatives from the Nyishi Federal Council (NFC), All Nyishi Youths' Association (ANYA), Nyishi Elite Society (NES) and All Nyishi Students' Union (ANSU).

The Nyishi organisations had called for phasewise agitations in the state, demanding immediate removal of the chief secretary for his remarks during the recent visit of the Union Tribal Affairs Secretary to the state to get the opinion of the Nyishis for changing the derogatory nomenclature - Dafla - in the Scheduled Tribes list.

The community was against the chief secretary and alleged that Mr Bam, instead of pleading for change in nomenclature from Dafla to Nyishi, urged the secretary to remove the suffix 'ng' from the word Galong.

Consequently, the state government had constituted a committee to probe into the issue and accordingly, it gave a clean chit to the chief secretary, stating that he was not against any community.

State Education Minister Tatar Kipa, during a press conference, disclosed that all the Nyishi organisations, during the meeting yesterday, decided to urge the state government to depute a team of officials to oversee the progress of nomenclature change with the Centre.

The meeting had also resolved to urge the state government to take immediate steps to replace the long-pending derogatory and unethical ethnographical term ''Dafla'' to ''Nyishi'' by constitutional amendment in the STs list in both Houses of Parliament during the next budget session.

The agitating organisations of the Nyishi community, reciprocating the goodwill gesture and assurances of the elected Nyishi representatives on behalf of the state government, decided to call off the agitatinal programme against the chief secretary, the minister informed.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu hailed the Nyishi organisations for calling off the agitation.

UNI