Given the depleting mass base of the regional Asom Gana Parishad led by former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, a section of senior leaders of the party are waiting in the wings to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is gaining ground in Assam.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asserted that she did not threaten junior doctors at state-run hospitals, who have been continuing cease-work for 21 days now to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a woman medic. Addressing a rally organised by the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, Banerjee had on Wednesday urged the agitating junior doctors of Bengal to urgently consider returning to duty and said she doesn't want to lodge first information reports (FIRs) against the striking doctors in consideration of their future careers.
The death toll in firing and arson along the Assam-Nagaland border by alleged miscreants from Nagaland has increased to 11 with the recovery of nine more bodies from the disturbed Uriamghat area of Assam on Friday even as night curfew continued.
The police are maintaining surveillance on private madrasas across Assam for any "suspicious activities" and necessary action will be taken if there are any inputs in this regard, he said.
The Assam cabinet on Monday decided to book men who marry girls below 14 years in the state under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Muslims across the country have joined the agitation, apprehending that the move could be a precursor to a country-wide NRC.
The AGP, an ally of the BJP, voted for the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, after Amit Shah's assurance. However, the scale, intensity and, persistence of the anti-CAA protests since then have taken it by surprise.
The party has forged ties with Bodo People's Front; continues talks with AGP.
The visit of a high-level delegation of revenue officials from Bangladesh to India-Bangladesh border areas in Dhubri sector in western Assam has triggered sharp protests by political and non-political groups in Assam.
From April 1 next year, over 600 state-run Madrassas will be converted into upper primary, high and higher secondary schools with no change of status, pay, allowances and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching staff.
Students' organisations and political parties are participating in the bandh to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution there.
The principal of a reputed private school in Guwahati has been suspended after a student alleged that he had sexually harassed her.
The committee has also suggested two formulas for the reservation of seats for the indigenous people in the Assam assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies of the state, including 67 per cent quota for them.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday assured that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will not be implemented in Assam if the party is voted to power in the state in the coming assembly poll.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal suggested that the NRC be implemented across India.
A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded.
The union has sought clarification on the environmental impact of the project in the nearby areas of neighbouring Assam.
A college student, who was critically injured during protests demanding a separate Karbi Anglong state, succumbed to injuries in Diphu, even as curfew continues to be in force at a district headquarter town of Assam.
The veteran diplomat said Hasina has stayed in India before after the assassination of her father and Bangladesh independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who later became the country's prime minister. Rahman was assassinated in August 1975.
A day after total shutdown in Assam to protest against the CAB, fresh protests erupted in the state and neighbouring Tripura and other parts of the nation.
The fundamental construct of India's neighbourhood policy still needs to be what Vajpayee postulated, Manmohan Singh embraced, and Modi energised. It's just that we need to junk domestic politics and excessive religiosity, while acquiring much humility and a renewed respectfulness towards our neighbours, recommends Shekhar Gupta.
'If the Citizenship Bill passes, then the very principle of Indian citizenship, which is called jus soli (right of birthplace) will convert to principle of jus sanguinis (right of blood) on the basis of religion.' 'Citizenship is being given on the basis of religion and it is against the Constitution.'
Though many students attended school, with letters of consent from their parents, some chose to continue education online with their guardians anxious about the pandemic situation and the emergence of a new strain of the novel coronavirus.
Neeraj Das alias 'Kola Lora', the prime accused in the AASU leader lynching case, died on Wednesday after being hit by a police vehicle "as he was trying to escape police custody", a senior officer said.
The travel advisory is perhaps a first of its kind issued by any state government
18 buses carrying students from Assam and 31 with students from Haryana were scheduled to leave Kota on Friday, Additional District Magistrate (administration), Kota Narendra Gupta, who is monitoring the task, said.
Sharjeel Imam will, however, stay behind bars as he has not been granted relief in the case involving alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2020 North East Delhi riots which left more than 50 people dead and hundreds of others injured.
Sonowal, a law graduate, is considered to be a rarity -- an honest politician who also worked to unite different communities with his oft-repeated lines 'Barak-Brahmaputra-plains-hills'.
Assam witnessed violent protests against the Citizenship Act since December 11.
NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela said those people whose names have been excluded in the first list need not worry.
The BJP, on the other hand, learnt from past mistakes to clinch power.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has honoured Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees by giving them citizenship through Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday and maintained there is no provision of stripping of anyone's citizenship in the new law.
A section of borders from R K B Hostel of over a century-old Cotton College, a premier post-graduate institution in the North East on Monday engaged themselves in street brawl with a group of journalists and lensmen at Panbazar in the heart of the city.
The Union home ministry on Tuesday asserted that Indian Muslims need not worry as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) will not impact their citizenship and has nothing to do with the community which enjoys equal rights as their Hindu counterparts.
The chapters were dropped by the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) for the 2020-21 session, as part of the 30 per cent reduction of the syllabus, keeping in mind the loss of academic schedule that the students had to face because of the pandemic.
'There is a design of fundamentalists that the north east must become an Islamic country.'
Eight people, including madrasa teachers, were taken into custody for allegedly being associated with the same terror group, also known as Ansarul Bangla Team, in the past two days in the district.
The citizens' register in Assam does not get to the bottom of things.
The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
'The win in Assam is likely to have a ripple effect in other north-eastern states like Manipur and Nagaland which have been reluctant to embrace the BJP in the past,' says Nitin A Gokhale, the distinguished commentator on strategic affairs, who lived and reported from Assam between 1983 and 2006.
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