News for 'assam politics'

Violent mob attacks convoy carrying accused in Zubeen death case

Violent mob attacks convoy carrying accused in Zubeen death case

Rediff.com15 Oct 2025

An agitated mob attacked a convoy carrying the accused in cultural icon Zubeen Garg's death case in Assam, leading to violence, property damage, and internet shutdowns.

Seven linked to Zubeen Garg's final hours ignore CID summons: Himanta

Seven linked to Zubeen Garg's final hours ignore CID summons: Himanta

Rediff.com6 Oct 2025

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma says most of those present with singer Zubeen Garg in Singapore during his death have yet to respond to CID summons, and addresses related political accusations.

Zubeen Garg: The Voice That United A Divided Land

Zubeen Garg: The Voice That United A Divided Land

Rediff.com4 Oct 2025

Zubeen Garg was not just Assam's voice, he was its heartbeat, its rebellion, and its song of unity in a land often torn apart.

Lookout notice issued against Zubeen Garg's manager

Lookout notice issued against Zubeen Garg's manager

Rediff.com27 Sep 2025

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday that lookout notices have been issued against North East India Festival organiser Shyamkanu Mahanta and Zubeen Garg's manager Siddharth Sharma in the singer's death case.

Congress Rout: Rahul's 'Vote Chori' Has No Impact

Congress Rout: Rahul's 'Vote Chori' Has No Impact

Rediff.com14 Nov 2025

The Congress on Friday posted its second worst performance in Bihar's electoral history, managing to win only six of the over 50 seats it contested and losing deposits in most seats as its 'vote chori' pitch failed to make any impact on the ground.

Will rid West Bengal of 'jungle raj' next: Modi

Will rid West Bengal of 'jungle raj' next: Modi

Rediff.com15 Nov 2025

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the NDA's victory in the Bihar assembly elections as a win for good governance, development, and social justice. He congratulated alliance partners and thanked the people of Bihar for their support.

EC extends SIR schedule by a week amid Opposition concerns

EC extends SIR schedule by a week amid Opposition concerns

Rediff.com30 Nov 2025

The Election Commission has extended the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in several states and Union Territories following concerns raised by opposition parties.

Facts fatal, Pak man linked to Gogoi's wife visited India 18 times: Himanta

Facts fatal, Pak man linked to Gogoi's wife visited India 18 times: Himanta

Rediff.com20 Feb 2025

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that Pakistani national Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, allegedly linked to Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's British wife, has visited India 18 times. Sarma, while speaking in the state assembly, claimed that the initial information in the case is "very fatal" for the Congress and will have a "huge impact" on the politics of Assam. He also stated that the investigation findings will put some people in an indefensible position.

'I Want To Teach Assam CM A Lesson'

'I Want To Teach Assam CM A Lesson'

Rediff.com19 Aug 2024

'There is a saying in Assamese about inflicting pain on an adversary: He cut my hands with a sword and rubbed salt into my wounds.' 'This has never been the BJP's culture but it started happening openly and frequently under Himanta Biswa Sarma.'

1905: The Partition Before Partition

1905: The Partition Before Partition

Rediff.com16 Oct 2025

The partition of Bengal in 1905 split more than a province, it touched people's hearts and awakened India's fight for freedom.

The Salil Chowdhury You Never Knew

The Salil Chowdhury You Never Knew

Rediff.com17 Dec 2025

'At a time when there was little awareness of world music, playing western tunes on eastern instruments like the flute and the dholak, blending vocal polyphony with Indian folk and contemporary styles, Salilkaku created a new musical genre in Bengal called Gana Sangeet.'

'Bharat Is Blessed To Have Bhupen Hazarika'

'Bharat Is Blessed To Have Bhupen Hazarika'

Rediff.com8 Sep 2025

'That a song can carry the weight of a people's dreams and move hearts across the world.' On Bhupen Hazarika's 99th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays rich tribute to the legendary singer and composer.

Arunachal Key To India-Japan Strategy Against China

Arunachal Key To India-Japan Strategy Against China

Rediff.com26 Nov 2025

If they act now, they can reshape the strategic map of Asia without firing a shot. If they wait, the next opportunity will come only after a serious Taiwan Strait incident -- by which time the price will be far higher, and the room for boldness far smaller -- the opportunity may well be lost by then. The question is no longer whether this can or should be done, points out Varun Arya.

SC asks states to add more staff, ease pressure on BLOs

SC asks states to add more staff, ease pressure on BLOs

Rediff.com4 Dec 2025

The Supreme Court has directed states to consider deploying additional staff to ease the workload on booth level officers (BLOs) engaged in the special revision of electoral rolls, following concerns about extreme work pressure and related issues.

Modi's Message In A Battle For The Congress

Modi's Message In A Battle For The Congress

Rediff.com19 Nov 2025

The Congress's performance in the Lok Sabha elections showed that it may be down but not out, and Modi is determined to ensure that in the next round in 2029, it is consigned to irrelevance, points out Saisuresh Sivaswamy.

'Rahul Can't Play Victim All The Time'

'Rahul Can't Play Victim All The Time'

Rediff.com17 Nov 2025

'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'

SIR showdown in Bengal: Mamata, BJP hold rallies

SIR showdown in Bengal: Mamata, BJP hold rallies

Rediff.com5 Nov 2025

Thousands of TMC supporters thronged the rally route, waving the party flags, raising slogans and holding aloft colourful posters.

Nitish Kumar Has The Opportunity Of A Lifetime To Change Bihar

Nitish Kumar Has The Opportunity Of A Lifetime To Change Bihar

Rediff.com18 Nov 2025

If he cannot do it this term by using his bureaucracy and experts from different fields, it will be a tragedy, asserts Ramesh Menon.

It's Time For Rahul Gandhi To Step Aside

It's Time For Rahul Gandhi To Step Aside

Rediff.com18 Nov 2025

Democracy in India is too important to be left to a leader with a limited appeal. If Rahul Gandhi cares for India, he should step aside for a new crop of leaders, suggests Harishchandra.

SC asks poll panel to respond to parties' pleas on SIR in 2 weeks

SC asks poll panel to respond to parties' pleas on SIR in 2 weeks

Rediff.com11 Nov 2025

The Supreme Court has requested the Election Commission to respond to petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The court has also asked the Madras and Calcutta High Courts to keep proceedings on similar petitions in abeyance.

Assam CM's 'communal rhetoric': Cong urges EC to act

Assam CM's 'communal rhetoric': Cong urges EC to act

Rediff.com4 Nov 2024

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday hit out at the Election Commission for the 'tone and tenor' of its recent letter to his party while also urging the poll body to act against 'communal and incendiary rhetoric' allegedly used by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during poll campaigns.

Bihar polls: Campaign ends for final phase, voting on Tuesday

Bihar polls: Campaign ends for final phase, voting on Tuesday

Rediff.com9 Nov 2025

Campaigning has concluded for the second and final phase of the Bihar assembly elections, marking the end of a month-long intense political battle. Key candidates and prominent leaders from various parties held rallies and roadshows to woo voters.

Why BJP, Nitish Need Each Other

Why BJP, Nitish Need Each Other

Rediff.com12 Nov 2025

Left to its machinations, the BJP would have loved to cut Nitish down to size, but it can't afford to do so as the JD-U is in alliance with the BJP at the Centre, and cannot form a government on its own in Bihar. For now, both need each other: Nitish for legitimacy, the BJP for numbers, points out Ramesh Menon.

NDA Tsunami Sweeps Away Mahagathbandhan In Bihar

NDA Tsunami Sweeps Away Mahagathbandhan In Bihar

Rediff.com15 Nov 2025

The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.

Why Educated Muslim Youth Join Terror Modules

Why Educated Muslim Youth Join Terror Modules

Rediff.com27 Nov 2025

Radical Islamist networks are deliberately targeting Muslim youths embedded within the country's professional and academic ecosystems, leveraging their skills, mobility, and digital reach to quietly strengthen operational capabilities. This trend highlights a dangerous evolution in terror recruitment -- one that exploits ideological faultlines, online echo chambers and transnational radical Islamist influences to attract individuals who outwardly embody India's modern and aspirational narrative, points out Dr Kanchan Lakshman.

EC to launch phased voter list revision, may start with poll-bound states

EC to launch phased voter list revision, may start with poll-bound states

Rediff.com22 Oct 2025

The Election Commission is ramping up preparations for a special intensive revision of voter lists across India, assessing the progress made on mapping current electors with voters as per the last SIR in different states.

Assam CM may order SIT probe into 'Pak links' of Gogoi's wife

Assam CM may order SIT probe into 'Pak links' of Gogoi's wife

Rediff.com15 Feb 2025

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into allegations of Pakistan links of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's British wife Elizabeth Colburn. Sarma alleged that Colburn had visited Pakistan after her marriage and that there are apprehensions of ISI infiltration into the Chief Minister's Office when Gogoi's father, the late Tarun Gogoi, was the chief minister. Sarma also shared screenshots of social media posts by Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an advisor of the Pakistan Planning Commission and a former colleague of Colburn, claiming that the relationship between the Gogois and Sheikh appeared to be "deeply rooted." Sarma's allegations have been rejected by the Congress as "laughable and entertaining."

'Politics in Assam is quite polarised'

'Politics in Assam is quite polarised'

Rediff.com17 Mar 2021

'The message has gone loud and clear (among the people of Assam) that the BJP is only interested in polarising (the country) and they are basically interested in (capturing votes in) the Hindi heartland and they don't bother much about rest of India.'

Shah announces R-Day style parade in Guj on Oct 31. Here's why

Shah announces R-Day style parade in Guj on Oct 31. Here's why

Rediff.com31 Oct 2025

The Union home minister said that on November 15, a grand celebration will be held at the 'Statue of Unity' to mark the birth anniversary of tribal icon Birsa Munda.

Bypoll boost for NDA in Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya; jolt in Bengal

Bypoll boost for NDA in Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya; jolt in Bengal

Rediff.com23 Nov 2024

The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.

The Politics of Population

The Politics of Population

Rediff.com6 Feb 2024

In the Interim Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that a high power committee would be set up to consider the challenges arising from 'fast population grown and demographic changes.' 'But who wants data? It pays to feed people's fears, insecurities and apprehensions. If such fears don't exist, they must be created,' her husband Parakala Prabhakar says in this fascinating excerpt from his book, The Crooked Timber of New India: Essays on a Republic in Crisis.

Kolkata varsity students attacked, branded 'Bangladeshis'; 2 held

Kolkata varsity students attacked, branded 'Bangladeshis'; 2 held

Rediff.com21 Aug 2025

A group of students from Kolkata University's Carmichael Hostel were allegedly attacked near Sealdah and branded as "Bangladeshis" by shopkeepers and miscreants, triggering a political row.

After Bihar, Is It Target Stalin For BJP?

After Bihar, Is It Target Stalin For BJP?

Rediff.com22 Nov 2025

After big win in Bihar, the BJP is likely to push harder in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK government and the uneasy BJP-AIADMK alliance are preparing for a tense election filled with seat-sharing fights, changing alliances, and the unpredictable entry of Vijay's TVK party, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.

Will take sides, won't let 'Miya' take over Assam: Himanta

Will take sides, won't let 'Miya' take over Assam: Himanta

Rediff.com27 Aug 2024

Replying to the motion, he said the crime rate has not increased if the population growth is taken into account.

Beware Of China Threat In North East

Beware Of China Threat In North East

Rediff.com30 Aug 2025

By ensuring Myanmar remains dependent on Chinese economic and military assistance, Beijing indirectly exerts pressure on India's North Eastern states, making New Delhi's regional security strategy even more complex.

Day after 'Miya' remark, Assam Oppn files FIR against Himanta Sarma

Day after 'Miya' remark, Assam Oppn files FIR against Himanta Sarma

Rediff.com28 Aug 2024

They accused Sarma of attempting to incite communal tension by targeting a specific community, potentially leading to riot-like situations in the state.

Return to Bengal if harassed in BJP states: Mamata to migrant workers

Return to Bengal if harassed in BJP states: Mamata to migrant workers

Rediff.com29 Jul 2025

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claims a Bengali-speaking woman and her child were threatened in Delhi after an alleged assault. She urges Bengali migrant workers in BJP-ruled states to return to Bengal if harassed and questions the absence of central commissions in BJP-ruled states when atrocities occur.

Stalin Goes To Bihar: What Gives?

Stalin Goes To Bihar: What Gives?

Rediff.com3 Sep 2025

Like his father Karunanidhi and AIADMK rivals MGR and Jayalalithaa, Stalin would like to confine his real political work to Tamil Nadu, and not want to take after the late Congress leader K Kamaraj and take up a national role, even if to create greater political space for son Udhayanidhi, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.

After Dhankhar experience, BJP to go for tried, tested method

After Dhankhar experience, BJP to go for tried, tested method

Rediff.com25 Jul 2025

Several leaders of the BJP and its allies are of the view that the NDA this time is unlikely to follow the instincts that made it pick Dhankhar and will be more conventional in its search for his successor.

'Police Encounters Were Done To Create Fear'

'Police Encounters Were Done To Create Fear'

Rediff.com2 Jun 2025

'...in the minds of the youth of Assam.' 'Now, no protests happen in Assam because of fear of police encounters.'