Articles
M ASHRAF If Kashmir is to be redeemed and saved, then every Kashmiri must adopt the maxim, “Kashmir First” in every aspect of life For every Kashmiri, the most important thing at the moment is the “Kashmir First”. It is Kashmir which gives him his identity. Here, one recalls a saying about a blade of grass growing on a piece of land. It has been said that every blade of grass in the world has a piece of land in which it has its roots. It is from this piece…
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When they’re earning millions, why should they pay peanuts to government? People generally are under this impression that Right to Information Act ( RTI) is applicable to Government departments only and that is the reason citizens of this state seek information under RTI from the Government departments and public sector undertakings ( PSU’s) only. For the information of our esteemed readers, I want to clarify that nowhere in J& K RTI Act 2009 and even Central RTI Act 2005, it is mentioned that RTI is applicable to Government authorities only. Section 2…
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One thing is very clear. The statement issued by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif representing some kind of agreement at the Russian city of Ufa on July 10, 2015 seems on its face to be conspicuously duplicitous. One wonders if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had some subordinate prepare it, trusting him to convey the intent, but never actually read what was published before it was published. Here’s the thing. There are two distinct parts to the Ufa agreement as it is explicitly written. First, It is prefaced with the general…
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Getting agitated about the separatists meeting the Pakistani high commissioner is indeed comical. GOWHAR GEELANI On February 22, 1994, both houses of Parliament unanimously passed a resolution emphasising that “Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India, and that Pakistan must vacate parts of the state under its occupation.” Without a whisker of a doubt, this adopted parliamentary resolution establishes that Kashmir is a dispute between India and Pakistan, the two nuclear powers and arch-rivals, and neighbours, too. This parliamentary resolution accentuates that “the one-third part of Kashmir administered…
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The worst part is that both countries have chosen the beaten track of taking mutually exclusive positions. GOWHAR GEELANI External affair minister Sushma Swaraj, whose role has largely been hijacked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made a statement in her press conference on August 22 in New Delhi that made the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the pro-freedom alliance of Kashmir more relevant than ever before. Swaraj in her widely watched and followed press conference said that since the 1972 Simla Agreement had committed India and Pakistan to resolve the…
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People in India have only one thing to tell me when I tell them that I am from Kashmir. They exclaim, “Oh, Paradise on earth”. From Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Gujarat in the west and from Tamil Nadu in the South to Jammu in the North, I have seen people praising the beauty of Kashmir. For many of us who were born and brought up in Kashmir, our place presents many different stories through diverse perspectives. I have been enchanted by the beauty of the Dal with Shikaras…
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Aug 15 or Jan 26 – Kashmiris have to face E-Curfew every year twice M ASHRAF Kashmiris have become quite familiar and used to the word “Curfew”. The Cambridge dictionary defines “Curfew” as, “a rule by which everyone must stay at home between particular times, usually at night, especially during a war or period of political trouble”. Imposition of curfew has become a normal routine in Kashmir which as per dictionary definition seems to be at war or in continuous political trouble. Many variation of this virtually physical imprisonment of…
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The obsession with tourism bordering on paranoia of some in Jammu and Kashmir needs to be put in a realistic perspective to get the economic and environment priorities of the state right M ASHRAF Immediately after taking over, the new ruling dispensation in Jammu and Kashmir went whole hog for a massive hype on tourism notwithstanding the fact that the most immediate priority was rehabilitation of the flood displaced, restoration of damage to infrastructure and prevention of future floods. Many started visiting Bollywood in right earnest to woo the film…
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Bollywood directors should stop selling and romanticising this political laboratory Aamir Qayoom I could see some of the Kashmiri discussing the Bajrangi (film) twist while munching the rolls and dipping the tea bags in one of the central university, I happened to visit recently. All that I could make out from their dhabha debate was the fact that Kashmir has got lost in the Bollywood hungama. This concern for the paradise connects us with the knotty and tricky representation of Kashmir in contemporary Bollywood films. While ‘Haider’ as a movie…
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The people of Jammu & Kashmir on both sides of the Cease-fire line and worldwide observed the 69th anniversary of India’s Independence Day as a black day because of India’s failure to honor its pledges that it has given to the people of Jammu & Kashmir at the United Nations. This year, the Kashmiri leadership had summoned all Kashmiris all over the world to demonstrate on August 15th, as a symbol of their unity and harmony. Their unity in mourning demonstrated their will to resist India’s illegal occupation and defiance…
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