On July 7, 2011, the Registrar-General of India (who is also the Census Commissioner) – and which office, for some unfathomable reason, best known perhaps to some babu in the GOI, remains located in the Ministry of Home Affairs, instead of the Ministry of Family Welfare – released the figures for MMR, IMR and TFR…
Dr. Manmohan Singh’s declaration that a quarter of Bangladesh’s population were anti-India and radicalized by Islam so embarrassed the Centre which had put it blithely on its website on the basis, one surmises, of “transparency” and then swiftly withdrew the statement (without anyone explaining officially why). “… we must reckon that at least 25 percent…
The role of media in influencing readers and viewers has been rarely under as much stress as these days following the closure of The News of the World, Britain largest selling newspaper, after its editors and reporters were involved in a phone and email hacking scam where they bribed police, misused a murdered girl's cell…
The consistent agitations in Assam by student movements and other organizations opposing illegal influx from Bangladesh is the stuff, if not of legend, than the story of the mobilization of communities in the region in a rare way. The campaign began in the late 1970s although the issues are far more historic and date back…
The Assam Chief Minister, cruising on his massive mandate in the recent Assembly elections, is wasting no time in getting down to business. In a flurry of activity, Tarun Gogoi has, these past days, instructed members of his Cabinet to formulate their priorities in a document so that he can incorporate these into his annual…
I write this at noon on Monday, part of the exigencies of a columnist – and the mystery of the missing Pawan Hans helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu may be resolved by the time it appears in print: we can hope for the best while preparing for the worst. A few days…
There have been four strong blows for the aam janata in the past weeks. One was how Anna Hazare and his team forced the Centre to accept their demands for an omnibus Lokpal Bill to control and review the conduct of those in public life, despite all the messy frame-ups, fake CD/fake recordings and the…
We were on a beach. Somewhere close to Puducherry. The sight was surreal: half-smashed houses with wide open fronts, people still living in them. The devastation was caused not by a sea storm or a cyclone, but by the eroded beach. The sea had crept up to the village; there was no protection between the…
Sanjoy Hazarika's acclaimed first book on the North East, Strangers of the Mist, tales of war and peace from India's North-east, published by Penguin Books India is now out again in a revised Edition, with a stark and powerful new cover and a new introduction, availalble through penguinbooksindia.com, Rs.399/-. At the time of its launch, The Telegraph called it…
Emphasising that since its merger with the Indian union Sikkim has no representation at the centre, Chief Minister Pawan Chamling suggested that the word “Sindh” in the national anthem be replaced with “Sikkim” to further strengthen emotional integration of the people of the state with the country. Delivering a lecture ‘Regional parties and their efficacy…