Emilo Khuvung
Molungkimong | February 11
Parliamentary Secretary Tourism, Law & Justice Yitachu, justified against the statement on declaration of “Christian Pilgrimage Village” (Molungyimsen) (appeared in the local dallies on February 7, 2012), that the church is the stakeholder and they have to declare and regulate it, saying ‘I am nobody to declare the pilgrimage village or the pilgrimage activities”.
The parliamentary secretary said this during an interaction with media persons at Molungkimong on February 9. He said if any accommodation, development activities are required to assist the travelers or those who come for pilgrimage, “as a government it is our responsibility to extend assistance to them, be it their transportation, rail lines or airheads,” adding that the church and the Christian communities need to do their job, thereby it is not a question of endorsing, what the department of tourism is doing, “But may be some wording might have gone wrong and has used such a word,” he said.
Yitachu said, the department or the government cannot bifurcate the villages (Molungyimsen/Molungkimong) as that will be a partial/injustice to the arrival of Christianity in the ‘our’ land, development will take place in all the pilgrimage surrounding village, “There is no confusion about the histories, we are aware of where and what has taken place , in due course of time, while the pilgrimage activities comes alive and live among us, then the confusion will not be there, confusion may lie but history cannot be changed that Molungkimong is the place where first convert has taken place, and we are not disputing”.
While reiterating that the history is true the parliamentary secretary has also urged not to be too harsh on what has been said, saying that certain words are spoken without any intention and believed there is always a room for correction and that confusion should not prolong as that will obstruct the developmental activities.
“Development alone will not bring any pilgrimage unless the church gets involved; Pilgrimage has its own activities to be done by the church and by the believers of the state”.
The first Baptistery pond at Molungkimong village (1972), Yitachu said there are certain usages in the history that needs a little bit of correction “like the baptism pool”, where the villagers can draw water for drinking and also can be used for baptism activity for whoever come for pilgrimage, “we can still do today, provided we accept each others”, he asserted.
