Articles Archives | Page 33 of 51

A new future for Kashmir

May 2, 2016 Editor

Rajni Shaleen Chopra My Sunday musings began with a tweet by a Kashmiri who writes under the pen-name Ibne battuta. His comment: ‘Damn the system, label it everything you can, and then seek help from it. Love your hypocrisy’. If the same had been stated by a mainland Indian, Kashmir would have been outraged. The sarcasm of a fellow Kashmiri may evoke some introspection. Meanwhile, comments of Kashmiris on social media have made me introspect. A popular Kashmiri poet noted after the Friday namaz: ‘Just met a person who said,…

The sociology of Kashmiri nicknames

April 28, 2016 Editor

M.Ashraf For past sometime, film actor Anupam Kher has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. For a change one would not like to counter his campaign against Kashmiri Muslims which, according to some Pandit leaders, has already substantially damaged their cause. Let us concentrate on his name. He is Khar and not Kher. There are many Kashmiri Pandits who have a sub-caste of Khar. This word in Kashmiri means a donkey. Kashmiris have a tradition of not only giving nicknames to people but also shortening and distorting…

The journey from bullets to ballots : Amanullah Khan

April 28, 2016 Editor

Kashmiris usually are sceptical about their leaders. In the last 462 years, ever since Mughal Emperor Akbar captured and exiled their last king Yusuf Shah Chak by deceit, they yearn for someone who holds his/her head high against any authority. Most leaders, who started as crusaders in this region, have later succumbed to the lure of power and easy life, leaving people in the lurch. Amanullah Khan, 82, co-founder of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who had passed away in Rawalpindi on April 26, remained a thorn for India…

Journalists: The unsung heroes

April 28, 2016 Editor

Gowhar Geelani Internationally acclaimed organisation Reporters Without Borders (RWB) recently released its 2016 World Press Freedom Index (WPFI), which again highlighted the fact that journalists across the globe are vulnerable to physical attacks, murders, injuries, kidnapping, intimidation and various kinds of pulls and pressures from both state as well as non-state actors. Understandably, the situation for journalists discharging their professional duties in conflict zones such as Syria, Ukraine and Kashmir continues to be depressing as they face wrath from various actors and the vested interests. Journalists working in restive regions…

J&K’s thrust industrial sectors startups should focus on Kashmir

April 26, 2016 Editor

Jammu and Kashmir Government with support from central government has categorized certain industrial sectors with growth potential and market avenues in the state and has declared them as thrust areas. All the benefits to these sectors will be available even outside industrial estates. Both the governments provide special assistance, incentives and benefits for investing in these particular sectors. The rationale behind choosing these sectors is the availability of the raw material and consumption of the manufactured and produced goods within the state. The thrust area industries development has been given…

Hartals do not benefit anyone

April 26, 2016 Editor

Alternative strategy needs to be evolved to protest and counter the human rights violations Muhammad Asif Rashid Hartaal…..! The dialogue by superstar Amitabh Bachchan in his angry baritone voice in 1983 movie ‘Coolie’ has wooed the women, mesmerized the men, impressed the classes and entertained the masses but who could have imagined even in his wildest dream that in the coming time the word hartal will echo on the streets of Kashmir for decades to come, would be on the tip of tongue of each Kashmiri and would change the…

NHPC and exploitation of Kashmir’s water resource

April 26, 2016 Editor

Aaliya Ahmed None other than a former minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, has described NHPC in J&K State as East India Company, fleecing the natural resources and giving peanuts in return. NHPC is back in limelight as a recent RTI application by a Delhi-based NGO NGO, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), has revealed that NHPC has earned from 2001 to 2015 Rs 194 billion from the sale of power generated from the different power projects being executed by them here. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has realized…

Srinagar headed for traffic terror this season!

April 25, 2016 Editor

Majid Hyderi While Kashmir is bracing up for business season, the summer capital of Srinagar is headed for a major chaos on the already congested roads. This time it won’t be routine traffic jams but worse: the ‘traffic terror’. The prediction doesn’t need any rocket technology; sometimes common sense is enough. In a bid to avoid any mishap, a high level committee led by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon has decided to close down the arterial Jahangir Chowk-Ram Bagh corridor in the wake of ongoing construction of the…

Lessons from NIT Row

April 13, 2016 Editor

Shujaat Bukhari The crisis that unfolded at National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar after West Indies defeated India in T20 World Cup semi-final snowballed in no time. It turned out to be the first challenge for Mehbooba Mufti’s government that had taken over only two days before that match. The demands put forth by the non-local students who heavily outnumber the locals are unusual to have come from campus of an educational institute. When the semi-final ended in India’s defeat, the reaction from both sides was on expected lines…

Delhi wants Kashmir without the Kashmiris

April 13, 2016 Editor

Garga Chatterjee Put students, television, cricket match, Kashmir and India into a mix and what you typically get is violence or intimidation against Kashmiri students in universities across the Hindi-belt. That is usual. That is how it is supposed to be. Sometimes the Kashmiri students have even been banished from the university or thrown out of their hostel overnight. None of these makes “national” headlines. However, after the recent T20 semi-finals, with the same mix of students, television, cricket match, Kashmir and India, the events that followed made it to…