Bloodstained road to Nellie

In that awful fortnight, when Indira Gandhi decided to force an election nobody wanted in Assam, you didn't have to go looking for trouble to write about

Why are we writing about what happened in Assam decades ago, now? In a series of two articles, on successive Saturdays, our customary National Interest slot?

First Person/Second Draft is an occasional series I started in mid-2013 inspired by Shoojit Sircar’s brilliant film Madras Cafe, set in the terror phase in Sri Lanka leading up to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. On India’s Independence Day that year, I was invited to deliver the annual Sri Lanka India Society lecture.

Fresh from watching the film, it gave me an opportunity to revisit many of the moments, places and people that featured in my