Normal life hit in parts of Assam due to 12-hour bandh over NRC
Guwahati: Normal life was affected in parts of Assam on Friday as a students' union observed a 12- hour bandh in the state over exclusion of members of an indigenous group from the final NRC. Asserting that the updated register, published on August 31, was "full of errors", the All Koch Rajbongshi Students' Union (AKRSU) demanded that members of its community, who have been left out, be immediately included.
One of the protesters told reporters that AKRSU will not accept the final NRC as "the list was full of errors". He also said that thousands of Koch Rajbongshi people have been excluded from the register. Official sources said no incident of violence has been reported from any part of the state, but the protesters were seen burning an effigy of state NRC Coordinator Prateek Hajela at Nalbari district's Kauli area.
Almost all shops, banks, educational institutes and offices remained closed in Koch Rajbongshi-dominated areas of Morigaon, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, Nalbari, Nagaon and Sivasagar districts, the sources said. Private vehicles also stayed off the roads, though state-run long-distance buses plied on national highways with police escort, they said.
Five agitators, including AKRSU's Kumarkata unit president Deepak Roy, were detained by the police during the day as they refused to lift a road blockade.
The 12-hour shutdown, however, did not have much impact on Guwahati, the sources added. More than 19 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants have been excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), released in Assam last month.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
