Poltical Dictation

The Bharatiya Janata Party expanded its footprint across the Northeast in 2018 by forming coalition governments in Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura. But a regional party, Mizo National Front, struck the final blow in Mizoram to make the region “Congress­free”. The year was also the best and the worst for women in the Northeast. Assam’s sprinter Hima Das made history for Indian athletics by striking gold in the 400m at the World U­20 Athletics championship in Finland and Manipur pugilist M.C. MaryKom created a world record at 35 by winning her sixth gold at the World Women Boxing championship. Assam’s Rima Das became a household name when her low budget film Village Rock-stars got the best national film award and was nominated as India’s entry for the Oscars in the best foreign films category.

On the flip side, Meghalaya­based activists Agnes Kharshiing and Amita Sangma battled for life after members of alleged coal mafia assaulted them for following and documenting illegally stacked coal and coal­laden trucks. The assault on them and a mishap in an illegal mine at Kisan in the State’s East Jaintia Hills district a month later put the spotlight on an unholy nexus that encourages coal mine owners many of them lawmakers flout an April 2014 ban by NGT on ‘rathole’ mining with impunity. NRC, Citizenship Bill The issue that hogged the headlines was that of exercise to update the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the Narendra Modi government’s bid to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, that seeks to legitimise the stay of non­Muslims who migrated from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan till December 2014 due to alleged religious persecution.

The defining moment of the NRC exercise began past the midnight of December 31, 2017, with the publication of the first draft that accommodated 1.39 crore out of the 3.29 crore applicants. The complete draft was released on July 31 with the names of 40.07 lakh people left out of the list. The claims and objections round for the excluded to be back on the list by producing relevant proof of citizenship ends on December 31.

The crowning glory for Assam was the appointment of Ranjan Gogoi, the man at the helm of the Supreme Court- monitored NRC, as the first Chief Justice of the apex court from the Northeast. The BJP, which began its ‘saffron surge’ in the region by winning the Assam elections in 2016, formed the government in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh in 2017.