That was an auspicious occasion to pay tribute to a dedicated tribal leader turned true nationalist, where the extraordinary contributions of Bhimbar Deuri (16 May 1903–30 November 1947) to the country, while it was preparing to adopt a new identity as a sovereign nation after decades of foreigner’s rule, were fondly remembered.
Biren Singh may not resign yet, despite the demand from the BJP's national leaders, because it could mean the end of his political career. But his actions over the past few years are reminiscent of Golap Borbora's in the late 1970s in Assam.
701 Caution: There are signs of an Assam-Mizoram rapprochement, but the temptation to politicise the strife does not augur well. PTI
Radhika Ramaseshan
Senior Journalist
History’s caprices have a way of catching up with the present times in the least expected ways. The shadow of the Partition has dogged and reshaped the history of three countries at all times but less seen and felt are the ramifications of a similar redrawing of borders demarcating the seven states of India’s Northeast that burst forth violently just when the troubled region seems to have made peace with itself. The irony could not have been starker when Assam and Mizoram went to ‘war’ recently. In ordinary circumstances, the use of the word ‘war’ to describe an intra-nation conflict might be unwarranted. But the sequence of events which erupted on the inter-state border between Vairengte (Mizoram) and Lailapur (Assam) last week reinforced the fragility of an entity that the BJP, like its predecesso