New India has come upon us at such a rapid pace that it is important to step back occasionally and assess where we have arrived.

On August 28 last year, the BJP in Assam on its website published a note under this headline: 'State BJP welcomes new Government regulations on land sale and purchase between different religions’.

The note said that for 'land sale and purchase between two different religions, an application will first have to be submitted to the office of the Circle Officer… the Circle Officer will forward it to the Deputy Commissioner. The District Commissioner will then forward the application to the Revenue Department of the State Government… after which the file will be sent to the Special Branch of Assam Police.’

After this, the file will go the district commissioner, who will then take the final decision regarding permission. Why is the mother of democracy doing this? To understand this, we have to go to Gujarat, the font of such laws.

Poor people forced to live clubbed together is what we know as a 'slum'. An ethnic group forcibly relegated to certain neighbourhoods is a 'ghetto'. The former have no means to go elsewhere. The latter have no choice even if they have the means.

Apartheid means separateness and refers to the policy of South Africa of forcing Black Africans into ghettos. They could only live in fixed spaces by law. When segregation in the United States........

© National Herald