-Scroll.in News channels in Assam often distort, defame, suppress and sensationalise, all to advance the perceived of the Axomiya jati. A crowd of two-wheelers rushes forward. In the melee, a young man beats the motorcyclists with a thick bamboo stick. The video ends as one of the two-wheelers loses control, as its rider tries to avoid the bamboo stick, and collides with the person recording the video. Cheery captions appear: “Bholuka bnaah [bholuka...
More »SEARCH RESULT
What the NRC reveals about the challenges of being Bengali in Assam -Paramita Ghosh
-Hindustan Times The NRC exercise is about identifying illegal immigrants within Assam. So why are the Bengalis saying they are being targeted? In the subcontinent, people have lugged suitcases. Said goodbye to old neighbours and acquired new ones. They have changed cities, hammered nameplates on different doors, sometimes in one generation or in each of them. Moving in has never meant that you won’t move out. You may even get an answer out...
More »Assam: The Mythology of "Immigrants" -Subodh Varma
-Newsclick.in Increase in Muslim population is not due to immigrants but because of higher birth rate, which is driven by poverty and illiteracy. Assam’s Muslim population was recorded as about 34% of the state’s total population in 2011 Census. It was about 31% in 2001 and over 28% in 1991. That’s not much of an increase. Yet insidious political propaganda about rising Muslim population has swamped the minds of people, both...
More »Untangling the knot of citizenship -Sanjoy Hazarika
-The Tribune Assam is tense; internet services have been suspended and security forces on standby with the final draft list of the controversial NRC out. Sanjoy Hazarika, a specialist on the north-east, explains why it is sitting on a powder keg I’M not getting into the numbers game for Assam and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process which is a draft in progress. The first draft, published last December had 19...
More »Bureaucratic Anomalies Put Assam's 'Doubtful Voters' in a Precarious Position -Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty
-TheWire.in With the final draft NRC expected soon, there is still no visible mechanism in place for the EC to continuously update its list based on the judgements by tribunals clearing 'D voters'. Guwahati: Shah Alam Bhuyan, an assistant inspector in the Assam police, reminded me of a stark truth about policemen on election duty: “We just help others vote, most of us can’t vote because we are usually on election...
More »