EVER since the idea of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was mooted in 2016, it was evident that there will be strong reactions in Assam. Right from the introduction of the bill in Lok Sabha on July 19, 2016, movement started in Assam, particularly in the Brahmaputra valley, demanding immediate withdrawal of it. All the political parties and mass organizations except BJP expressed their clear opposition to the bill. Politically BJP was completely isolated on the question of the bill where even its coalition partner AGP had out rightly rejected the BJP’s position on the bill.

LEWIS Morgan, who had made great contributions to the study of the evolution of human race and social changes, was born in 1818, the same year in which Karl Marx was born.Morgan laid down the foundational principles for the study of man’s progress from primates to human beings through evolutionary stages, involving various types of social structures, including the institutions of marriage and family.

THE social life of Assam is in for a boil over Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, a proposition to grant citizenship based on religion, in Assam. Public anxiety became visible when the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) visited the state.Assam has always been a sensitive place when it came to questions of ethnicity and nationality. However, the intensity with which people reacted to the bill was never seen in the recent history of Assam.People and organisations representing all communities in Assam have anxiously participated in the public hearing at Guwahati and Silchar.

ON May 12, the US walked out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCOPA) agreement, signed between the five Security Council Permanent members plus Germany (P5+1), and Iran. This agreement was a quid pro quo between the P5+1 countries and Iran. The agreement was for global sanctions against Iran ending, in lieu of dismantling a significant part of its nuclear programme. Iran fulfilled its part of the bargain, and this has been verified by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in its numerous visits to Iran.

MOST federations in the world have arrangements for the mobilisation and devolution of resources. In India, the constitution provides for the appointment of a finance commission every five years to recommend methodology to share resources such that the fiscal space of the constituents, especially the states, is well protected.The terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission are thus a matter of utmost importance to the resources available to the states of India.