Although it would be rather cumbersome to accommodate all the eventful happenings that are taking place on streets and beyond, to arrive at the actualities which post-CAB enactment ushered, a few picks will suffice. Japanese Prime Minister’s visit for a three-day summit with his Indian counterpart scheduled to be held at Guwahati has been cancelled since it has been felt that it would be too risky. Earlier, for similar reasons Bangladesh Foreign and Home Ministers cancelled their India trips that also included their HM’s  trip to Meghalaya. But that what will be the most startling of the lot is the cancellation of Union Home Minister’s trip to Shillong on Sunday and his Arunachal visit on Monday. Gist of the matter must have now been realised by the pioneers of CAB- it has been a total miscalculation and a second thought should have been given. Perhaps, it hadn’t been fancied that so much of resentment was awaiting to erupt like a volcano. But this is what that has happened, will continue, and nobody knows, exactly for how long.
Assam was bound to be the nerve-centre of uprising keeping in mind the state’s historical context of the infiltration issue with 2 protest-related deaths reported so far. But, evaluating the current volatility, it will not be a bolt from the blue if more such unfortunate things keep repeating. By now, the entire country must have realised the reasons behind the pan-NE protests and its exponential increase of intensity. Here, the jargons like unconstitutional, anti-constitutional, anti-secular, outwardly exclusionary etc that are being repetitively used while elaborating on CAB’s unacceptability are actually ‘alien’ if the region’s aspirational context is unbiasedly measured. It’s all about saving own identities, cultures, languages, land, livelihoods and all that may be accommodated to define the much nurtured word- indigenous. These had already been on edges due to multiple fault lines that only expanded in the nation’s post-colonial existence. CAB will be the final blow to all that now remains in microscopic forms - the overwhelming sentiment is this. A religious agenda pursued with doggedness for inflating a particular vote-bank, utterly disregarding the pleas of a population segment which had poured its trust through EVMs only 6 months back- it’s certainly not one of the finest phase of Indian democracy. But, camaraderie hasn’t altogether died yet in the nation. Protests are truly taking a national character with youths and students leading the charge and more states declaring in-principle of their CAB apathy.
Meanwhile, the ghost of a pan-Indian NRC is waiting to enter the already vitiated atmosphere. The tree of chaos has been planted through CAB and is going to be nourished soon. Sorry, no prizes for guessing the identity of the ‘nourishing element’. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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