Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to the North East from Tuesday, during which he will attend the oath-taking ceremonies of new governments in three states of the region.
The ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur has claimed 258 lives since May last year, the state government's Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh said on Friday.
The BJP's year has been marked by a remarkable ability to adapt its message and methods, rebounding from Lok Sabha election setbacks with improbable wins in Haryana and Maharashtra. The party's campaign machine, drawing on the strength of the RSS and its affiliates, has demonstrated a capacity to shift focus and respond to regional dynamics. While the BJP faces challenges, its adaptability and Modi's unchallenged leadership suggest a continued strong presence on the Indian political landscape.
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
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to enrol Rohingya refugee children in local schools, saying it was the Centre's domain.
His comments come in the backdrop of the state government deciding to bring stringent laws and evoking the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act to check child marriages and underage motherhood.
The Assam government wants to ban polygamy as "a component of the Uniform Civil Code" and will form a committee to examine whether the state legislature was empowered to prohibit the practice prevalent in parts of the state, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday.
The shutdown was called by Kuki-Zo groups, including the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) and Kuki Students Organisation (KSO), in protest against Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh's statement about militants entering the state from outside.
'Look at the post mortem reports. Every body (of the 10 Kuki-Zo youth who were killed) has almost 12 bullet marks on it.' 'Why do they have to fire so much even if they wanted to kill them?' 'One or two shots would be enough to kill them. Why then they had to fire so many bullets on them?'
At least 2,441 people have been arrested in the state till Monday in the continuing operation against child marriage, launched on February 3.
The two -- Oinam Thoithoi Singh and Th Thoithoiba Singh -- are being escorted back to Imphal, the police officer said.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
The Assam government on Tuesday began clearing nearly 1,900 hectares of forest and government land in Sonitpur district, affecting 12,000-odd people who were allegedly staying there illegally for decades, a senior official said.
Post-mortem examination reports of 10 Kuki-Zo youths killed in an alleged gunfight with CRPF in Manipur have revealed that they sustained multiple fatal bullet injuries, with most of them fired from behind. The reports also noted that the youths were in camouflage and khaki dresses when they were brought for autopsy. The incident has raised concerns about the circumstances surrounding the deaths and the ongoing ethnic violence in the state.
'This is leading to anarchy.'
'There are 7,000 guns which are in the hands of the armed militia of the Kuki and Meitei communities.'
'Jairam Mahto's new party dented the NDA because he pulled a lot of the OBC vote.'
Over 5,000 people lodged in relief camps in Kokrajhar district of Assam are being shifted to make-shift relief camps in their native villages or close to their native villages under the protection of 24x7 fixed security pickets.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
The court also rapped the Assam government for slapping stringent laws like the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) and rape charges on child marriage accused.
Wangchuk, who has been camping at Ladakh Bhawan in the national capital, is yet to be approached by a central government representative, a group member said.
The Punjab Police has already invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against the Khalistan sympathiser.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is visiting Karnataka, said he intended to shut all the madrasas (Muslim religious schools) in his state, as they were not needed in "New India".
The observations came while upholding the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act which grants Indian citizenship to immigrants from Bangladesh who entered Assam on or after January 1, 1966 but before March 25, 1971.
The government has granted Geographical Indications (GI) tag to various products, including Gamosa of Assam, Tandur Redgram of Telangana, and an apricot variety of Ladakh. The commerce and industry ministry said on Wednesday that the total number of GI has reached to 432. "Famous Gamosa of Assam, Tandur Redgram of Telangana, RaktseyKarpo Apricot of Ladakh, Alibag White Onion of Maharashtra have got their GI tags," it said.
The Gauhati high court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government to give permission and security to a delegation from Assam while inspecting the elephants taken from Guwahati to temples of the southern state.
The letter said the high-powered committee of the ministry, which was holding talks with representatives from Ladakh, will meet them next on December 3.
'The greatness of India can be experienced by meeting Indians on the frontiers of India.' 'Every citizen on the border is a soldier'
The bridge will reduce travel time between strategically located Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by 4 hours.
Sarma, 53, has been enjoying a Z category cover provided by the Central Reserve Police Force VIP security unit for his travel in the north eastern states till now.
Representatives from Kuki-Zo communities said their demands have crossed the point where they wanted President's rule to be imposed in the state, and now they see a Union Territory with legislature on the lines of Puducherry carved out of Manipur as the only solution to the ongoing strife.
Sarma also said he has nothing to do with the politics of Maharashtra where the survival of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government is at stake after 38 of his party's MLAs rebelled and are currently camping at a hotel in Guwahati after being flown there in several flights.
Businesses and banks in Guwahati were open and vehicles plied the roads but schools and colleges were closed. Stray incidents of clashes were reported in West Bengal.
The government will provide Rs 11.11 lakh crore for capital expenditure for 2024-25 and introduce viability gap funding to spur private investment in infrastructure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. Presenting the Union Budget for FY2024-25, she said that the government will endeavour to maintain strong fiscal support for infrastructure over the next five years, in conjunction with imperatives of other priorities and fiscal consolidation.
'They only bring pieces. Dialogue is the only way forward.' 'We should get people who have influence to bring the community leaders to sit across the table and talk.' 'Otherwise, our adversaries across the borders will add fuel to the fire. Let's not give them a chance.'
The Assam government has set up an eight-member committee to prepare a framework for implementation of all clauses of the 36-year-old Assam Accord, especially the Clause-6 report prepared by a central panel pertaining to protecting the cultural, social and linguistic identity and heritage of the indigenous people, officials said on Saturday.
'It feels like Assam is good just as a tourist spot and not a place to earn and live.'
Each of Assam's border disputes has its own legacy of claims and counter-claims:
Several rebel Maharashtra MLAs are currently camping in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati.
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