DIMAPUR, JULY 2 (MExN): The Konyak Union (KU) today criticised Nagaland State Governor, PB Acharya for interfering on issues pertaining to the social, cultural and traditional systems and institution within its customary jurisdiction.
A press note from the KU President, Manlip Konyak and General Secretary, Honang Konyak today said this while denouncing the “un-endorsed royal coronation ceremony (Pongyin Mozu Moyong)” held on February 1 near Wangti village “by a section of social renegades/cult that disrupt & deviates from the parent traditional norms.”
Regarding this, the KU criticised the Governor for “surreptitiously creeping into the Konyak Soil.” It further asked the Governor as to “how secularism could be strengthened by means of disintegrating the very social integrity that had existed harmoniously since time immemorial?”
The KU went on to state that “Anghship is hereditary; distinct and un-adulterated blue-blood.” “Pongyinpu is a process of a royal coronation/ceremony which is strictly observed only by those ordained Jongwang/Pongyin villages acquiring royal status, dignity and controlling specific dominion & influences over its subsidiary villages through traditional & customary process.”
It added that the existence of the Chief Angh signifies its royal status as “Pongyin Angh whereby its verdict is un-questionable & un-doubtable supreme.” The KU further informed that there are only about 10 Konyak Pongyin villages that qualify to perform such royal coronation ceremony.
It therefore claimed that the “Pongyin Mozu Moyong” that was observed “directly derails the age old traditional norms & institution.” “Such programme is an undeviating flout to the divinely ascertained custom & belief. Acquirement of such status is obtained only through wars and allegiances,” it stated, demanding that the particular Pongyin Mozu Moyong be denounced.
The KU meanwhile also said it was “shocked” as to why the State head is “prioritising” only that particular section on development, education and electricity.
It further claimed that “tagging” those sections as a minority indigenous community “is an act to disintegrate the indigenous Konyak Naga tribe.” “The motive and claim behind such cruel scene itself is a design that had been cradled for self benefit & privileges,” the KU stated, while adding that the union “had never outcast any section/group but instead the age old traditional institution is always accommodative.”
“Any external force that acts against the age old tradition & culture is a war against the integrity of the Konyak which shall not be tolerated,” it further cautioned.
