The influential All Bodo Students' Union has given an August 13 ultimatum to communicate a date for holding tripartite dialogue on the union's demand for a separate state for the Bodo tribe in Assam.
Sarma, after being elected unanimously as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance legislature party, said in his address that he was grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda, Sonowal and all other party leaders for giving him an opportunity to serve the people of the state, and pledged to carry out his duties with "dedication and honesty".
The prime minister told the MPs that the northeast is very close to his heart and his love for the region is very natural. Quoting Modi, Rijiju saidthe PM asserted that he doesn't look at the region from the prism of politics.
The toll rose to 78 on Thursday in attacks by NDFB-S and retaliatory violence in lower Assam with Adivasis setting afire houses of Bodos as the backlash to Tuesday massacre continued for the second day.
'This is the only place on earth where Elephas maximus climbs to these heights.'
Hapless Adivasi villagers living in remote bordering areas of Kokrajhar and Sonitpur districts of Assam stood susceptible to marauding heavily armed National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Songbijit extremists who were desperate to show off their strength to counter sustained, intensified operation against them by the Assam police and the army of late.
The recent bouts of violence by suspected Bodo militias that killed over 30 hapless 'Muslims, mostly children and women, and rendered several thousands homeless in lower Assam recently, once again offers a shocking glimpse of the horrendous game of violent communalism being played by the Congress government of Assam in furtherance of its cynical power politics for the last several years.' 'The result is, the state is a simmering communal cauldron that sporadically erupts at the slightest real or imagined provocation,' says R N Ravi.
The movement for a separate state of Telangana in the south is having its repercussion in northeast India too. Now, the Bodoland People's Front, a tribal political group comprising former insurgents, has stated that a separate state for the Bodo tribe in Assam would be a must if the Centre grants a Telengana state.
The death toll in Assam's Udalguri and Darrang districts, dogged by clashes between Bodos and illegal Bangladeshi migrants, rose to 40 today with the violence spreading to neighbouring Chirang district.
The Assam police and security forces have seized 344 illegal weapons from extremists from the troubled Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in Assam from 2012 to July, 2014.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and its two Assam allies -- the Asom Gana Parishad and the United People's Party Liberal -- on Wednesday 'almost finalised' their seat-sharing pact for the Assam assembly polls and a formal announcement will be made in a day or two, sources said.
The Congress has been reduced to a C player in national politics thanks to its inability to read the pulse of the people, says Rashme Sehgal.
AFSPA can be safely lifted from almost 90 per cent of Nagaland, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Sarbananda Sonowal was on Tuesday sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Assam in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and other dignitaries at a huge public function at Khanapara field.
'The BJP is taking a risk in Assam, but it may face a tough time in coming times,' says Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty.
'The Bodos and the Assamese were at each other's throats, the Assamese Muslims and the Bengali Muslims were at each other's throats, the Bengali speaking Muslims and Hindus were coming together against the Assamese speaking caste Hindus and the plains tribes and vice versa.'
The Assam government on Friday said only genuinely displaced people in the recent clashes between Bodos and migrants would be rehabilitated in the affected Bodoland Territorial Areas District and Dhubri districts.
It was in July last year an unprecedented spell of communal riots broke out in the Bodoland Territorial Council area in Assam, involving the Bodo tribes and immigrant Muslim settlers.
The BJP, on the other hand, learnt from past mistakes to clinch power.
A day after it was reported that a teenager was killed at the hands of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction) cadres, other organisations have slammed the state for failing to resolve the militancy along the border. Anurag Kashyap reports
An umbrella organization of several ethnic groups has decided to launch an agitation opposing the statehood demands raised by a number of ethnic groups in Assam. including Bodos, Karbis and Koch-Rajbongshis.
Himanta Biswa Sarma -- who is also the North East Democratic Alliance convenor -- took the oath of office and secrecy in Assamese.
Over 1,700 inmates have taken shelter in relief camps in trouble-torn Kokrajhar and Chirang districts of Assam since on Thursday following tension in the wake of a Bodo member of Legislative Assembly's arrest.
Assam may throw up a hung assembly with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling Congress there engaged in a neck and neck fight while Left Democratic Front could oust the Congress-led alliance in Kerala, an opinion poll has projected.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh on Friday rued that a section of political parties were out to fan communal sentiments over the latest spell of riot in Assam while making an appeal to all sections of people to maintain restraint at this critical juncture so that normalcy could be restored properly in the riot-hit areas.
As forty-five people lost their lives and 200,000 people were rendered homeless in the week-long communal violence between the Bodo tribals and the Muslim immigrants, the Assam government in northeast India ummed and ahhed, says Bibhu Prasad Routray
The latest flare-up in Assam is a wake up call for the Congress governments at the state and the Centre that they cannot afford to ignore ethnic equations that generate cyclical clashes, writes Anirban Ganguly
IMAGES from Europa League matches played on Thursday.
People rendered homeless due to clashes between Bodos and minority immigrants have alleged lack of sufficient food, drinking water and medicines in relief camps, a charge denied by authorities.
To assess relief and rehabilitation requirements of violence-affected people, a team of seven senior central officials will visit Assam on Tuesday.
Worried about their security in the strife-torn Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council in Assam, the religious minority community living in the area has demanded that they must not be subjected to 'harassment' anymore in the name of detection of illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Cross-voting by Left and Congress MLAs on Friday helped Trinamool Congress gain an extra seat in West Bengal while a similar action by Congress MLAs in Andhra Pradesh saw the Telangana Rashtra Samithi making its debut in Rajya Sabha as high drama marked the polls to the upper House in the two states.
Two young designers from Meghalaya are making a positive impact with their skills.
The anti-talk faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom on Friday blamed "infighting" within the ruling Congress party in Assam for the violence between Bodos and minorities. The outfit claimed that people in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts are being made "political scapegoat" for the sake of individual ambitions of leaders.
Rediff.com takes a look at life inside a relief camp in Kokrajhar, which was the epicenter of the recent ethnic violence, which claimed 77 lives.
With the situation improving in violence-hit districts of Assam, refugees have started returning home with the state government setting an August 15 deadline for all displaced persons to return.
Violence escalated in trouble-torn Kokrajhar district of Assam on Sunday with a senior DIG rank police official and three others injured in mob attack prompting police to fire in self-defence, while the death toll in the last two days' clash between Bodos and immigrants rose to 12.
The Centre on Monday vowed to hunt down those responsible for the ethnic clashes between Bodos and minorities after fresh violence erupted in Assam. "The situation is under control as of now. There could be some external elements behind the violence. The state government and the Centre are determined that we will have this investigated and get to the people who are behind this," Union Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters.
With improvement in the situation in strife-torn lower Assam areas where 56 people lost their lives, curfew was on Tuesday relaxed in Kokrajhar for two more hours, while night curfew continued in Chirang and Dhubri district.
The Assam riots at the Bodo-dominated Kokrajhar have resulted in 45 persons dead and about 2 lakh people displaced. Various reasons have been pointed out for these clashes, which range from illegal immigration and local issues. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
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