-The Telegraph The Opposition’s feebleness at this moment of crisis for our Secular, democratic founding principles is deeply worrying Once the chariot starts rolling, it is difficult to stop it. The Union home minister’s announcement in Parliament last week that the National Register of Citizens will be carried out throughout the country, including Assam in the ‘natural course of events’, rang with the confidence of a rolling chariot that can ignore all...
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Foreigner until proven Indian -Sudipta Bhattacharjee
-The Telegraph In a fortnight, we will know how many lakhs will be catapulted into a maelstrom of trauma thanks to the NRC What does it take to prove one’s identity (read citizenship) in a sovereign, socialist, Secular, democratic republic? Ask nonagenarian Amar Upadhyay, whose daughter, Baijayanti Devi, was the first woman martyr of the Assam Agitation, and who contested the assembly elections. Ask Kargil veteran, Mohammad Sanaullah. Ask Manju Devi, the great-granddaughter...
More »UP readies law for pvt universities with rider -- pledge no anti-national activity -Maulshree Seth
-The Indian Express While the UP government has not specified the 27 universities that will be brought under the ambit of the proposed Ordinance, the UGC lists 29 private universities in the state as on November 2018. Lucknow: The draft of a new Ordinance cleared by the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Tuesday includes a provision which mandates an undertaking by new and existing universities that they will not be involved in or...
More »Caste Politics, Secular Idiom -Ayan Guha
-The Indian Express BJP is attempting to use citizenship issue to woo Namasudra community in Bengal. It is generally believed that unlike other states of India, caste and religion don’t play a significant role in West Bengal’s electoral politics. Academic literature often articulates this as West Bengal’s “exceptionalism”. As a result of the electoral decline of the Left Front and some limited attempts by the Trinamool Congress at community-based mobilisation, the...
More »CPI(M) promises unemployment dole -Sobhana K Nair
-The Hindu Manifesto includes repealing AFSPA. Targeting the Narendra Modi government for a 45-year high in unemployment figures, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) in its manifesto, released on Thursday in Delhi, said the “right to work” should be enshrined in the Constitution and there should be a provision of allowance for those without jobs. The party’s campaign song too captures the party’s accusation with lyrics that say “Aab ki baar, Modi...
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