Sharjil Imam came to limelight during the ongoing protests against the CAA in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, for his alleged remarks threatening to 'cut-off' Assam from rest of India.
After the publication of the final list of NRC, those people whose name will figure in it will be given usual Aadhaar number as applicable to legal residents in the country.
'The central and Assamese governments want to get 35 lakh to 40 lakh Bangladeshis (Hindus) to come to Assam and make the Assamese people a minority.' 'They want to make Assam a Bengali state.' 'Bengalis by nature are BJP supporters whereas Assamese people don't support the BJP.'
'Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Swami Vivekananda, all wanted and argued for a united Bengali culture, and there is no room in their social objective for trying to excite one community against another'
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last week, in 13 images.
'We have done majoritarianism through other means.' 'The Citizenship Amendment Act, read together with the National Register of Citizens, will prove what I mean,' notes Aakar Patel.
'No right thinking student of politics can name one state where the BJP gains in double digits.'
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'The BJP will take time to come to power in Andhra.'
The real brilliance of this RSS campaign, therefore, lies in building a dominant power base with, and for, a mostly non-RSS leadership. That is why the rise of the BJP in Assam is their stand-out victory, says Shekhar Gupta.
Observing that the final NRC list, which validates bona fide Indian citizens of Assam, has excluded 19 lakh residents, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on Friday said that a number of domestic and international organisations have expressed concern that the NRC is a "targeted mechanism to disenfranchise Assam's Bengali Muslim community, implicitly establishing a religious requirement for citizenship and potentially rendering large numbers of Muslims stateless."
'Between now and 2021, Bengal's politics could change irrevocably,' predicts Kanchan Gupta, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation.
'Whether the Hindu voter will vote for us or not, we can't say, can we?'
The TMC expects to emerge victorious by way of a majority of minority votes and a minority of majority votes, notes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
'People feel concerned about the future, whether it is the land or the jobs.' 'The BJP came to power in Assam with promises of maati, bheti (home, hearth and identity), land, jobs and culture.' 'Are these going to taken care of? I think those are real concerns.' 'The Assam chief minister (Sarbananda Sonowal) was one of the leaders of the All Assam Students Union which fought for and is one of the signatories to the Assam Accord.' 'Today, his comrade-in-arms (Samujjal Bhattacharya, chief advisor, AASU) is leading the opposition in the streets.'
'The Citizenship Amendment Bill is a classic case of short-term gain over-riding long-term interest. 'We must welcome all persecuted minorities from our neighbouring countries and not just Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The BJP will get the lion's share of the Opposition vote. I would give the Congress-Left around 15 per cent.'
'There is a design of fundamentalists that the north east must become an Islamic country.'
The BJP, on the other hand, learnt from past mistakes to clinch power.
'As a governor, I have every right to speak my mind if I feel the security of my country is at stake.' 'Why is it that we would have to shed tears when Muslims are killed or tortured, but have to keep mum when the Hindus receive the same treatment?'
By maintaining that all Indians are tolerant, the Pew centre appears to have skimmed over the surface of its subject matter without delving deep, asserts Amulya Ganguli.
Delhi was just one riot. Add Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and you can count a few scores dead. It could, regrettably, be just the beginning of a very long, dark phase for India, notes Shekhar Gupta.
The citizens' register in Assam does not get to the bottom of things.
With a staff in one hand and the other on his granddaughter's shoulder, the old man briskly takes the lead as the sun breaks over the horizon.
Government sources had claimed on Tuesday that four persons have committed suicide in fear of NRC so far, while four others had died while waiting in queues to procure the requisite papers.
'This movement is not about Hindus, Muslims or Bengalis, but about all Assamese, irrespective of their religious faith or economic class'
'The non-vegetarian share of the population fell from 75 to 71 per cent between 2004 and 2014, no doubt in anticipation of the lotus blooming.' 'Three years of saffron authoritarianism may have thinned the non-vegetarian ranks even more,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'To treat a Hindu fleeing persecution and certain death in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan on par with a Muslim voluntarily sneaking into India for economic reasons or otherwise is callously cruel, blatantly perverse and grossly unjust.' 'The concept of equality cannot be invoked to perpetuate a historical wrong that needs to be righted,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
'Modi should arrest Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Sharma.' 'These leaders were instigating mobs and spreading hatred and they must be thrown in jail.' 'I had seen dreams of a new India under Modi, but now I am disillusioned with him.'
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
The BJP's message is that the past must be reinvented as creatively as imagination allows, states Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
Opponents of the CAA and NRC have gone to town accusing the BJP of an ulterior motive (read, disenfranchisement of Muslims) in implementing the NRC. By the same token it can be alleged that anti-CAA opponents have a nefarious agenda in mind that would be scuttled by the implementation of the NRC: Namely the accrual of dedicated vote banks and the restoration of Muslim hegemony over at least parts of India, especially Bengal and Assam, argues Vivek Gumaste.
The West Bengal CM said she is shocked that the former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed's family members' names have not been included in the NRC final draft.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite Indian films of 2021.
Shah accused the Congress and other opposition parties of running a misinformation campaign.
It is time the current leaders who swear by 'cultural nationalism', that is religion neutral, assert that Bharatiyata is at the core of our nationalism and India was never a 'Hindu Rashtra', argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The election campaign finally ended on Friday, May 17. Arindam Majumder reveals what he discovered on the election front on a long rail journey.
'Most Assamese don't understand a word like ghuspethiya and its insulting connotation.'
"The process of NRC will be carried out across the country. No one irrespective of their religion should be worried. It is just a process to get everyone under the NRC," the Union home minister said replying to a supplementary during Question Hour in the Upper House.
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