The Election Commission of India has published the final voters list for Assam after a Special Revision, deleting over 2.43 lakh names from the draft roll. The final roll comprises nearly 2.49 crore voters, a decrease of 0.97 per cent from the draft roll.
All along, we were told SIR was an essential exercise carried out as part of the Election Commission's regular duties. But now that the ideological mentor of the ruling party has declared that SIR is a means of detecting infiltrators, one understands the unseemly haste with which it is being carried out, notes Jyoti Punwani.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claims that 'Miyas' vote unitedly, leading to their political advancement, while the votes of 'our people' are scattered. He also asserted the need to maintain pressure on illegal settlers in Lower Assam.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday dismissed the suggestion that illegal migration from Bangladesh has led to high growth of Muslim population in the state but blamed illiteracy for the high birth rate among the community.
An Independent Rajya Sabha MP on Monday lodged a police complaint against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party leader has made a "hate speech" against the 'Miya' community on the previous day.
Sarma, while responding to reporters' questions on high price of veggies in Guwahati, had said, "Vegetables are not priced so high in villages. Here the Miya vendors charge us more. Had it been Assamese vendors selling vegetables, they wouldn't have fleeced their own people."
A fact finding commission of leading Muslim organisations headed by the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat has said that it was a clear failure on part of the Bodoland Territorial Council and the Assam government in anticipation and control of the situation that has forced over 3 lakh people, most of whom are Muslims, to live in around 300 refugee camps.
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
Imam is accused of offenses relating to sedition, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, imputations prejudicial to national integration, and public mischief under the Indian Penal Code, and indulging in unlawful activities under the UAPA.
He was slapped with a sedition case after a video of his purported speech went viral on social media where he was heard speaking about "cutting off" Assam and the northeast from the rest of India.
Two more rioters were on Wednesday arrested in connection with the Azad Maidan violent protests against alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 26, police said.
A 23-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after a video of Saturday's violent protests here against alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam showed him firing a police weapon, raising suspicion that two protesters killed in the rioting could have fallen to friendly fire.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and briefed him about the violence in Mumbai following protests against Assam riots. Chavan met the prime minister at his office in Parliament to explain the steps taken by his government to control the violence that broke out in Mumbai after a rally on Saturday to protest the killings of Muslims in Assam.
If the apathy towards the plight of Muslims in the north-east continues it will disturb the peace of the region for a long time to come, SP national secretary Kamal Faruqui tells rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
A local court on Monday rejected the bail applications of two accused in custody for their alleged role in riots at Azad Maidan on August 11.
'After the NRC it is proved that whatever the BJP was saying about illegal Bangladeshi migrant was a lie and Indian Muslims have their documents to prove their citizenship.'
The anti-CAA activist was slapped with a sedition case after his alleged speeches went viral on social media where he was heard speaking about "cutting off" Assam and the northeast from India. Earlier, he had been booked on similar charges by Aligarh police in Uttar Pradesh for a speech he delivered on the AMU campus.
'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.'
'An army general is not supposed to speak on political issues.' 'He should be keeping away from politics.'
'The NRC is thoroughly anti-poor and the CAA is thoroughly anti-Muslim.' 'And these two deadly combinations are going to hit us like how demonetisation and GST has hit the entire nation.'
The diktat was circulated through pamphlets which was widely distributed on Tuesday among public across Hojai and Nagaon districts in central Assam.
'Pure, uncluttered anti-Modi-ism, however angry, can't be an ideology or an electoral alternative.' 'The best it can do for you is damage Mr Modi enough for him to finish below 200.' 'Can it enable you to cross 100 to begin with?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Several Assamese-origin students studying in American universities met with Indian embassy officials to deliver a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee on the killing of over 32 Muslims in Assam as a result of election-related violence there. Aziz Haniffa reports
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.
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