DETENTION, WITH A SIDE OF CHAI

The BJP-led Assam government has really caught the 'detention' bug.

- SIDDHANT JUMDE

After 'Bangladeshi miyas' and other 'ghuspaithiyas (infiltrators)', next up are the state's MLAs. Cultural affairs minister Bimal Borah has proposed a 'detention room' at the state assembly to hold suspended MLAs, complete with tea service. This is so they don't end up briefing the media with 'misleading information' as soon as they are ejected. Speaker Biswajit Daimary says the secretariat will study the idea, floated after Raijor Dal's Akhil Gogoi was suspended (yet again). An apoplectic Gogoi called the proposal "unconstitutional", but Badruddin Ajmal's AIUDF said it like it is—the state treating elected representatives "the way it treats illegal immigrants", a reminder of Assam's long history of detention centres.

VOTER VAGARIES

The Bengal BJP is learning the hard way that tightening the electoral screws will be no easy task in the volatile state. State chief