'The violence that shook Assam was a direct outcome of the state's ethnic problem... The tension that created a rift between the Bodos and the non-Bodos for years found a blood-spattered expression.' Former NSG chief Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Kokrajhar, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about last week's carnage in Assam.
On Tuesday, Mandaviya had written to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asking them to strictly follow the COVID-19 guidelines during the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra.
While main political parties especially Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are engaging in high-voltage campaign in Assam, young voters, especially the first timers, sound at a loss about which party or the candidate to choose, as they are hardly convinced about the poll promises and have not been swayed by histrionics of poll candidates.
Asking voters in Assam to reject the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly polls, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that if it came to power, the state will be run from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur or the Prime Minister's Office.
Strongly backing Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi over his handling of ethnic violence in the state, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party accusing it of 'adding fuel to the fire'.
Opposition parties in Assam assembly on Tuesday raised a storm over inordinate delay in complete the fencing along the 263 km India-Bangladesh border in the state. The opposition called upon the Congress government in Assam to urge the central government to show urgency in resolving border disputes with Bangladesh to facilitate completion of fencing work.
In the wake of Team India's stupendous win against Pakistan at Mohali, the World Cup mood has spilled into the election campaigning even in the far flung Assam on Friday.
The competition for the worst or most perilous 10 years has always been between the 1960s and the 1980s, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The victims, labourers of Salmira tea estate, fell ill after they drank the illicit brew on Thursday night, the police said.
The ULFA anti-talks faction triggered a blast at Assam Pradesh Congres Committee headquarter on March 14 in which three Congress leaders were injured. But Gogoi on Friday tried to make light of the ULFA threat saying that the threat had been there since a long time.
'The BJP has 106 MLAs and Eknath Shinde claims the support of 40 MLAs. So why are they both not forming the government right now in Mumbai? Why the delay?' Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf reports.
In a bid to embarrass the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday sought to know if the party and its President Sonia Gandhi concurred with the Assam Accord signed by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and demanded the agreement be implemented to solve the crisis in the state.
While members from Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland and Tripura are retiring on April 2, five members from Punjab are retiring on April 9.
Justice Ajit Borthakur in his judgement said that the court is of the opinion that the case is not a fit one to grant the privilege of pre-arrest bail to the petitioner and as such it stood rejected.
Assam's plight has originated in the fact that the Congress party, for its shortsighted political considerations, has refused to acknowledge that infiltrators are foreigners, says Sudheendra Kulkarni
Apart from Kerala, in no state did the Grand Old Party scored in double digits.
As violence continued to rock parts of Assam in support of various demands for separate states, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday ruled out further division of his state, saying people there want to live like a joint family.
Bharatiya Janata Party nominee S Selvaganapathy was declared elected unopposed to the lone seat in Rajya Sabha from Puducherry, the first time the saffron party has got representation in the Upper House from the Union Territory, while Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's two nominees, Kanimozhi N V N Somu and K R N Rajeshkumar, were elected without contest from Tamil Nadu.
Stung by the public of dissent against his leadership shown by about 20-odd comparatively young members of Legislative Assembly, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has resorted to consultation with veterans within the party to nip it in the bud.
The AGP, which has ruled the state on its own twice, will play the junior partner and contest 24 seats while the rest 126 will be divided among BJP and three smaller outfits, with the saffron party leading the alliance.
Thackeray said people should be aware of how religious issues are raked up to distract their attention from core issues.
Fast running out of patience, dissident Congress legislators in Assam have set Sunday as the deadline for the party high command to take a decision regarding their demand to replace Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
The Gauhati high court on Monday said the observations made by a Barpeta court in its order granting bail to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani for allegedly assaulting a woman police officer ''crossed its limits" and "demoralised" the police force and the government of Assam.
Conrad Sangma on Friday evening submitted the letter of support to Meghalaya Governor Phagu Chauhan at Raj Bhawan signed by 32 MLAs of NPP, BJP, Hill State People's Democratic Party and two Independents.
Indicating a shift in stand, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said his party is open to consider quitting Maharashtra's ruling alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if the rebel MLAs camping in Assam return and discuss their grievances with CM Uddhav Thackeray, while coalition allies Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress vowed support to the beleaguered governing bloc and asserted its majority can only be determined in the assembly and not outside.
It said that Congress' strategy to pursue 'fringe and disruptive politics' in Parliament was only for political reasons and opposition to the development agenda of the BJP government, which has been rejected by the people in the four large states of Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala.
'BJP loses a democratic election, then buys MLAs from the ruling party's flock and rides to power in these states.' 'Do you think Atalji would have tolerated this?'
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The main Opposition party is likely to lose some more of its strength in 2016-17
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Asom Gana Parishad alliance swept the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) polls on Sunday, bagging 58 out of the total 60 wards, while the main opposition party Congress drew a blank.
The improvised explosive device was planted on a bicycle parked near a pan shop in front of Jorhat district police station located on Mahatma Gandhi road in the town, hat is located about 310 km to the east of Guwahati.
The Congress-led coalition government has tabled the Assam Preventive Detention (Amendment) Bill 2009 with an aim to make the Assam Preventive Detention Act, 1980, more effective. The government intends to increase the maximum period of preventive detention from six months to two years.
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was elected to Rajya Sabha for the fifth consecutive term on Thursday as Congress won both the seats to the Upper House from Assam.
'The situation is so bad that it is not possible for me to explain in words how bad the conditions are for the common man of Manipur.'
'Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh will have to treat these militias for what they are: Criminals armed with deadly weapons. Otherwise, nothing will distinguish the National Democratic Alliance government from the ten-year long perfidy of the UPA in Assam.'
Worsening the crisis in Assam, State Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma quit on Monday demanding the immediate ouster of Tarun Gogoi as chief minister.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the "historic day will remain etched in their memories forever".
Three persons were injured in police firing at Donkamokam, in the violence-ravaged Karbi Anglog Hills district on Friday, even as the army staged flag march in the affected district headquarter town of Diphu.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances