First, organised stone pelting and now, outsourced terror strikes.
Stone pelting by protesters during demonstrations is not a new thing. Over the past decades, our drawing rooms have been satiated with images beamed from all over the world — places in Europe, South East Asia, West Asia and South America easily come to the mind — [...]
Islamist foreign fighters didn’t start the jehad in Kashmir. They came to support and fight the jehad in Kashmir.
Mint has been and remains this blogger’s favourite newspaper. But when the wonderful editorial team at that newspaper errs in its assessment, the discrepancies have to be pointed out. On the twentieth anniversary of the mass [...]
The decision to revoke the ban on pre-paid mobile telephones is a welcome one.
Thank God, the ban on pre-paid mobiles in Jammu & Kashmir has finally been revoked. The manner in which the ban was imposed — it wasn’t even publicised that the telecom department had also imposed a penalty of Rs 7.38 crore on [...]
Omar Abdullah has to focus on a long-term plan to revive state capacity in J&K, rather than be dependent on the Centre for administering development schemes in his state.
While the outlays of the state of Jammu & Kashmir — most of it as dole by the Centre — receive a lot of publicity, the poor [...]
More than the television coverage of the Srinagar terror attack, it is the editorial opinion surrounding it that is objectionable.
Terrorits stage a bloody comeback in J&K after partial withdrawl of army from the velley. fidyeens kill policeman.
So tweeted Prabhu Chawla [Twitter is a great excuse for bad spellings] in the evening when the terrorists had [...]
An alternate model of development and national integration should be propagated by National Conference to replace this outdated and non-existent political slogan.
History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.~EL Doctorow
Kashmiriyat. The right-wing Hindu intelligentsia has dismissed it as [...]
Why do terror incidents in India that are counted refer only to Pakistan-backed Islamist terrorist attacks in major urban centres outside Jammu & Kashmir?
An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.~John Cage
At the turn of the year, Ajai Sahni critically examines the hugely publicised statement — “no terror [...]
PM’s Fifth Working Group report on Kashmir’s relations with centre serves some purpose in the mêlée that is Kashmir.
The Prime Minister’s Fifth Working Group on Kashmir, dealing with centre-state relationship, headed by former Supreme Court judge S Saghir Ahmad has submitted its report to the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir. This working group [...]
National Conference has lost an opportunity by failing to politically mobilise its cadres to protest the murder of a 21-year old girl by terrorists in Shopian.
The alleged rape of two women in Shopian earlier this year has been in the spotlight for too long now. Even after the CBI has reported its findings disproving the [...]
High voting percentages in Jharkhand assembly polls, despite the state being a Maoist stronghold, raises uncomfortable questions.
The relatively high voter turnout figures in the ongoing Jharkhand assembly elections should have attracted far more attention that they have done so far. With nearly 80 percent of assembly constituencies declared as Maoist-affected by the Centre, the first [...]
The attempt at Senior Hurriyat leader Fazal Haq Qureshi’s life is an effort to scare the moderate separatists away from peace talks.
This is not the first moderate leader targeted by Pakistan-backed Kashmiri militants. The first such incident since the rise of militancy was the assassination of current Mir Waiz’s father, Maulvi Mohammad Farooq by the [...]
Omar Abdullah’s interview stresses the issues highlighted earlier.
Reading Omar Abdullah’s interview with Karan Thapar on The Devil’s Advocate reaffirms all the points raised in this blogpost last week. National Conference [NC] and People’s Democratic Party [PDP] don’t see eye to eye as they pander to different constituencies in Kashmir. If one observes closely, it is [...]
A rebuff for the Kashmiri separatists from China and EU.
Mir Waiz Umar Farooq really seems to be landing himself into trouble. First, he had to stave off internal problems in the Hurriyat by dissolving his executive and governing council, and issue a gag order on media interaction. All this while he is also being targeted [...]
Making sense of the internal contradictions of separatist politics undermining prospective peace talks in Kashmir.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq is trying to reassert a role for himself in the peace process, which he believes is rightfully, and solely his in Kashmir. The statements by and the stance of Mirwaiz since his return from the US — and [...]
This is actually not merely about a cricket match between two lowly placed teams in the Plate division of the Ranji Trophy. It is much more than it, with all the political implications and messages that such an event in Srinagar conveys. The foremost among them is to shatter all the claims of the state government about a return of normalcy to the state.
Does the central government have a concerted plan on Kashmir?
Think of small details as if they were pebbles you can use to start a ripple effect. ~Thomas J. Leonard
Swiftly and stealthily, the Indian government is steadily moving forward on Kashmir. Close on the heels of reports of a quiet dialogue with the separatists and push [...]
Quiet talks between the Kashmiri separatists and centre have started. It is a long and bumpy road ahead.
The process has started. Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has ordered the release of separatist Kashmiri leader Shabbir Shah. This confidence building measure is in keeping with the Union Home Minister’s plan of “quiet dialogue” and [...]
On merit, there is no case for a permanent Rashtriya Rifles.
This had happened earlier as well. Now again newsreports suggest that the Finance Ministry has stalled the defence ministry’s proposal to grant a permanent sanction for Rashtriya Rifles[RR], Indian Army’s counterinsurgency force deployed in Jammu & Kashmir.
Since 1990, when the force was raised to deal [...]
There are little signs to suggest a breakthrough.
There are newsreports suggesting that Indian government is keen on restarting its long-stalled talks with the separatist leaders in J&K and a concrete offer in this regard could be made during the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to the state. The major separatist leadership is split down the middle, [...]
Rebuilding the National Conference, along side providing robust governance, is humanly impossible for any single individual.
Muzamil Jaleel’s piece in the Indian Express lays out what is wrong with Omar Abdullah, the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir. He opines that Omar’s administration is in shambles and his politics is no better shape either. This is [...]
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