Field of ethnic politics in Assam: Life or ideology?

All political prisoners should be released immediately as the jails are too congested & unsafe. The case of KMSS leaders is serious as with others, although, I don’t have any sympathies for their political agenda & ground.

They should be released immediately and given adequate care. Not only are jails over-crowded, so are hospitals. The policies of the health minister of Assam are questionable for what it has brought upon the frontline workers and the health infrastructure of the state.

The hypocrisy of the caste Assamese middle class and the civil society lies in the fact that the demand for the release of political prisoners stands in stark contrast to 30+ people who died in detention centres in Assam due to the inhuman NRC process.

The virus as ‘enemy’ is invisible & without a soul, but who is responsible for the deaths in the detention camps? How did NRC come to life? Why did the intellectual class & chest thumping ethnofascists, including KMSS leaders lost their speech at the face of mass deaths?

Why did they let rights and dignity of the hapless people erode? Such 'disinterestedness' reveals the field of ethnic politics in Northeast.

Like the state as an object, life under COVID has become unthinkable.

Quoting from Arijit’s article in the Polis Project:
“According to the latest statistics available with the Ministry of Home Affairs’ National Crime Records Bureau, the general occupancy rates in all jails in Assam are at 93.2 per cent. In district jails of Assam, the percentage

is at 103.03. Silchar, Goalpara, Tezpur, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh, and Jorhat are all district jails inside which the detention centers are situated. A six-feet social distancing is an impossibility in such circumstances of congestion.“
“The state of Uttar Pradesh, where overcrowding

stands at 176.5%, has decided to release 11,000 prisoners from 71 facilities. This includes 8,500 undertrials and 2,500 convicts. All of them, face jail terms of seven years or less and hence, according to the Supreme Court’s instructions, are eligible for release.

Maharashtra has decided to release 11,000 prisoners from its 60 jails. Prisoners have also been released from Delhi’s Tihar Jail. In West Bengal, 3,076 prisoners have been released. Assam has also released 722 undertrials.“