Sri Lankan speakers at the ‘Ayubowan Bangladesh’ (Long Live Bangladesh) event held under the aegis of the NDB Investment Banking Quarter of Sri Lanka and the Bangladesh High Commission gushed about Bangladesh’s friendly Government; its pleasant and eager-to-help bureaucrats; its techno-savvy white collar workers; and its cooperative and reasonably-priced labor reports P.K.Balachandran in DailyFT.
As in so many other developing societies of South Asia, in Assam too, myths and dogma take root, develop their own reality, and begin to dictate political debate unchallenged by the mainstream media, academia or larger intelligentsia. Such is also the case with what can only be called the myth of continuing Bangladeshi migration into Assam.” – Anindita Dasgupta, The Myth of the Assamese Bangladeshi
Six assassins of the founder of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibut Rahman, who had been sentenced to death nine years ago, are still at large.
The six convicts still at large are Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, M Rashed Chowdhury, SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Abdul Majed and Risaldar Moslemuddin. Interpol has issued a red notice against them.
Peace has returned to Bangladesh after ten days of a student agitation which was brutally quelled by the police and club wielding thugs of the ruling Awami League. But the issues underlying the stir remain and might re-surface in other forms as the country heads towards parliamentary elections likely to be held between October 31 and December 31, this year. And the roots of the trouble could be traced to economic issues ,says P.k.Balachandran in Daily Mirror.
Sharpening her attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over the exclusion of 4 million people in the final draft of Assam’s National Register for Citizens (NRC), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked if Hilsa fish, Jamdani saree, Sandesh and Mishti doi, which are originally from Bangladesh, would also be branded as “infiltrators or refugees”.
Hundreds of thousands are in danger of becoming “Stateless” given the fact that Bangladesh, from where the “illegal immigrants” had allegedly come, is not going to accept them unless their Bangladesh citizenship is proved, which, as past experience shows, is possible only in a few hundred cases. Since Indian citizenship is hard to obtain, being categorized as “illegal migrants” means being “Stateless” which is a precarious position.
The Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says that there is no danger of anyone whose name is not in the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) of being sent to a detention camp. The NRC exercise is sure to be a “win win” for all sections of the population in Assam, he said in an interview with Liz Mathew of the Indian Express.
Work on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in respect of the eastern Indian state of Assam bordering Bangladesh, is proceeding at a feverish pace regardless of its domestic and international consequences. Undertaken with the intention of identifying “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh since 1971 and removing them from Indian citizenship, work on the NRC could create a huge class of “Stateless persons” because Bangladesh will refuse to take the “illegals” back, writes P.K.Balachandran.
Rising Islamic radicalism with subtle encouragement from the Shiekh Hasina regime which is aiming at a third term in the upcoming parliamentary elections, has given a boost to Hindutva outfits among the Bangladeshi Hindus. India’s premier Hindutva organization, the Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS), is also active, reports South Asian Monitor.
Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers have a filed police complaint against the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for saying that there will be a “civil war and bloodbath” if the BJP government implements the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam from which four million people have been left out. Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to divide the country with the draft National Register of Citizens or NRC in Assam, Most of those left out are said to be Muslims.