'The entire debate around outsiders and foreigners has been based on the long held belief that Bangladeshi infiltrators are threatening the demography and culture of Assam. But now, as per a community wise break-up of the over 19 lakh people excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), nearly a third of the people left out of the list are actually non-Bengali people, many of whom belong to indigenous tribes and ethnic groups. Shockingly thousands of Karbis, Rabhas, Sonowal Kacharis and even Ahoms have been excluded from the final NRC!
'Communal clashes broke out at Jokaha of West Champaran following manoeuvred incitement by majoritarian antisocial elements. However, the arbitrary arrests, torture and indifference that followed the vicious cycle solely targeted minorities... NewsClick presents a ground report from the region. “As our procession entered the Mazar (mausoleum ground), stones began to be hurled at us …we didn’t know from where it was coming…the peaceful gathering turned into chaos…,” recalls Zumdin Miyan, 60, who has been booked for ‘rioting’ and similar offences.
'The Ahmedabad education department has issued a circular to all “government-grant-in-aid and self-financed secondary and higher secondary schools to arrange special lectures, debate, essay and elocution competitions and group discussions on the subject of Article 370 and Article 35A during the school assembly on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17.”... Not taking any risk with the suggested debate, the said “circular” takes care to lay down what is to be said in the “debate”.
'Thousands held dharnas (protest sit-in) and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at different places in Punjab on Sunday after being stopped by the state police from going to Chandigarh for their scheduled rally in solidarity with Kashmiris, who have been under a clampdown for over 40 days. At least 30 activists, including ten women, from different farmers’ and students’ unions, were also arrested in Mohali as the Congress government of chief minister Amarinder Singh thwarted all attempts to hold a protest march...'
'Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, currently a member of the Lok Sabha, has been detained under the Public Safety Act. The PSA allows detention for up to two years without a trial. The decision to slap the PSA on the NC leader came Sunday night, on the eve of the hearing of MDMK leader Vaiko’s habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court, where the absence of any papers justifying his incarceration since August 5 would have been a major embarrassment for the Centre.
'Addressing a gathering organised by Hindu extremis outfit, Sri Ram Sene in Bengaluru on September 15, K S Eshwarappa, Minister Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in Karnataka said, “Hindus of this nation are not ‘Napunsakas’ (impotent). We have been fighting for Ram Mandir for decades now. Babri Masjid was demolished and a Ram Lalla Mandir has been built in its place.
'A writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking release of children being detained illegally in Kashmir ever since special provisions of Article 370 were read down and the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories. The writ petition has been filed by Enakshi Ganguly and Shanta Sinha under Article 32 of the Constitution, which provides the right to constitutional remedies. Ganguly is an eminent child rights expert and Sinha was the first chairperson of the National Commission for Child Rights (NCPCR)...'
'While the BJP has rejected accusations that the arrest and subsequent jailing of Congress leader P. Chidambaram is ‘political vendetta’, a party MLA from Uttar Pradesh has “warned” West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to “mend her ways” or face the “same fate” as the former finance minister. Surendra Singh, the MLA from Bairia assembly constituency, said the Trinamool Congress supremo should “become the prime minister of Bangladesh” as she was opposed to the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
'Last week, papers published in the journals Cell and Science reinforced two well-established but controversial facts of ancient Indian history: first, that the Indus Valley Civilisation was pre-Vedic, and second, that Sanskrit came to India through migrants from the north-west at a time when the Indus Valley Civilisation had declined. Media coverage, however, reported the exact opposite of what the studies found. To understand why newspaper headlines, television and Twitter feeds misrepresented the research so comprehensively, one needs to grasp why the facts are controversial.
'...there is a case for autonomy [of central banks], for sure. And that autonomy is important for all institutions, and that autonomy in the central bank in India was dead, certainly, in November 2016, when demonetisation was announced. Because it was very clear at that time that this was a decision taken against the wishes of the RBI, imposed on the RBI, which then had to implement something, which it did very badly. Which it had absolutely no knowledge of, and no preparation for.
