Category: Articles

Articles

The verdict of the Supreme Court: Losses and gains?

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“Law without Justice is a Wound without a Cure “ By Hashim Qureshi In judicial parlance” justice delayed is justice denied.” Today, a divisional bench comprising three judges of the Supreme Court of India issued a verdict on a petition challenging the decision of the Government of India by which a blanket ban was imposed on the telecommunication network system in J&K. This order came after five months and five days of processing of the case.. The verdict said the imposition of a permanent ban on the internet is against…

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From Kashmir to Ayodhya, the BJP’s total domination of politics

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Barkha Dutt You had to be in Ayodhya this week, as I was, to understand the enormous political vindication the bhoomi pujan ceremony for the Ram Mandir affords the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The decision to build a temple and provide an alternative site for the Babri masjid may have been one delivered by the court, but for the party and its followers, the labour was entirely that of the Narendra Modi government. While the streets were dressed up in hues of saffron — balloons, festoons, flags — the dominant…

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India violates own law by altering Kashmir Status

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Tariq Kamal Qazi On August 5, 2019, India promulgated “The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019” radically changing the Article 370 that was to preserve a special status for the State of Jammu and Kashmir. India also promulgated the “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019”, bringing the very status of Jammu and Kashmir as a separate state to an end by splitting it into three Union Territories — Kashmir, Ladakh, and Jammu. Following is an analysis of the legal aspects of the changes, highlighting the historical and political…

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State gone with Article 370: Hashim Qureshi

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The State of Jammu and Kashmir existed for 173 years. The valley was purchased by Gulab Singh from the British and Jammu had already come under his suzerainty. Maharaja Gulab Singh incorporated lesser principalities into his kingdom and gave it the name of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The borders of his State extended from Damchok on the border line with China to Lakhanpur – the border of Punjab and from Gilgit to Bhimbhar. The state was under the autocratic rule of the Dogras from 1846 to 1947. Hari…

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One year ago, India killed mainstream politics in Kashmir, and nothing else

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And Article 370 was actually reborn—as another “betrayal”, a collective humiliation that kindles separatism further. Only uncertainty has domicile in Kashmir now Haseeb A. Drabu Circa 2014. Halfway through election campaigning, it occurred to me that the issues of azaadi, autonomy, and Article 370 were never raised in any of the meetings, anywhere. Not once was it asked of me where I stood on these. Even in private conversations with people—farmers, shopkeepers, traders, and agricultural labourers—the National Conference’s demand for ‘autonomy’ or the PDP’s concept of ‘self-rule’ was never mentioned,…

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An indefinite article, A year of silence: Was a Historical Blunder corrected in Kashmir…Or Another Committed?

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New Delhi is rolling out the ‘three Ds’ to change J&K’s political/social map internally. It may even restore J&K’s statehood as a sop. But all amid a lockdown of opinions. Bhavna Vij-Aurora Jammu and Kashmir. These days, the words rarely evoke the torn edges of majestic mountains that garland it, beauteous gardens that recall imperial grandeur, swiftly-flowing streams that keep time for eternity or the spirit of Kashmiriyat immersed in Sufi spiritualism—all things that once marked India’s northernmost region. Though it has never had an ordinary trajectory since 1947, the…

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For Kashmir Solution China is a party now

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China has demonstrated a remarkable ability to resolve border disputes peacefully Naeem Sarfraz Six years I wrote an article “Kashmir solution lies in Beijing”. It highlighted that China is a party to the Kashmir dispute. As such it has to be part of any solution of the dispute. Nothing happened for years. But recent events have brought matters to a head. India occupies Jammu, Ladakh and the Kashmir Valley, which China and Pakistan refuse to accept; China occupies Aksai Chin and parts of Ladakh, which India refuses to accept; Pakistan…

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Kashmir battling lockdown for a year now

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One of the most beautiful places on earth is faced with political upheaval and pandemic Tariq A. Al Maeena While the rest of the world has experienced some form of lockdown in recent months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the people of Kashmir in India have faced a double whammy. They have had to deal with both the coronavirus and an erosion of their political freedoms. Kashmiris have been living under a government-imposed lockdown since last August — for almost a year now — and it has nothing…

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India is weaponizing its Spiritual Tourists

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Pilgrims headed to the divided region of Kashmir get armed guards and national encouragement — if they’re Hindu. By – Raksha Kumar Every July, thousands of buses, trucks, cars, mules, and palanquin bearers crawl up 12, 768 treacherous feet of mountainous terrain to reach the Amarnath cave, where a smooth ice stalagmite dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva reaches up from the cave floor. The devotees heading for this linga (a Hindu term for venerated, somewhat phallic objects) are making one of the most dangerous pilgrimages in India — not…

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A photo of a dead Kashmiri and the making of a macabre narrative

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An officially staged photo-op involving a dead Kashmiri and a toddler demonstrates another level of depravity in India. By Mirza Waheed Perhaps it does not require a moral compass to feel outrage and fury over the image of a three-year-old Kashmiri child sitting on his slain grandfather’s chest in the middle of a street. You probably need only one of the two to feel something: A pair of eyes or a heart. The 65-year-old man, Bashir Ahmed Khan, was killed after a shootout between militants and Indian paramilitaries in the…

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