-The Indian Express The Assam Accord of 1985 began with the assurance that the “government has all along been most anxious to find a satisfactory resolution to the problem of foreigners in Assam.” In the late 1970s, an extraordinary student movement had taken root in Assamese soil. The Mangaldoi constituency, which was voting in a bypoll after the death of its MP Hiralal Patwari, was under the spotlight. The seat, with a...

-The Hindu Scores of visitors from Assam are looking for the names of the earlier generations in the electoral rolls from 1952 to 1971; the State archives issues certified copies Kolkata: Mintu Das, a Guwahati-based businessman, could not find the names of three members of his family on July 30 when the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released in Assam. In the past two days, Mr. Das...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Three steps in quick succession have suggested that the BJP might be trying to build a social coalition of Dalits and Other Backward Classes to complement its traditional base among the upper castes in the run-up to the general election. On Thursday, the government managed to get a bill passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes. Twenty-four hours earlier,...

-The New Indian Express Over 40 lakh people were left out of Assam’s draft citizenship list. India is a land of immigrants. Inclusion, not exclusion, has been our motto The second draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been published with 40 lakh people not finding their names in it. They are on the verge of becoming stateless. There are apprehensions of ethnic cleansing or disenfranchisement now due to the...

-The Telegraph When Thakur was arrested, police officer got 'calls from six VIPs' Muzaffarpur: Brajesh Thakur - the arrested proprietor of an NGO that ran the Bihar government-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur where at least 34 minor girls were drugged, tortured and raped - rubbed shoulders with the who's who of Bihar, sources said. In 2005, when Nitish Kumar became chief minister, he had gone to Muzaffarpur to take part in the birthday...