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If Hurriyat leaders are ‘evil’, why did Advani meet them in 2004?

August 24, 2015 Editor

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…

Why Hurriyat is the winner in India-Pakistan tug of war

August 24, 2015 Editor

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…

Virgin Valleys of Gurez

August 21, 2015 Editor

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…

e-Curfew

August 18, 2015 Editor

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…

Getting Tourism Right in Kashmir

August 18, 2015 Editor

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…

Kashmir lost in Bollywood Masala

August 18, 2015 Editor

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…

Why do Kashmiris Observe August 15th as Black Day?

August 18, 2015 Editor

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…

Tackling the Technology Addiction

August 17, 2015 Editor

By Lalit Anjum “Technology is a queer thing. It brings you gifts with one hand, and stabs you in the back with the other.” ― C.P. Snow, English chemist and novelist Above quote is in sync with the impact of modern technology on each and every aspect of human lives. Advancement in digital technology has made our life much better than the past. However this in turn has made us addicted to digital technology as never before. Nowadays we are dependent on sophisticated technology even for our mundane tasks. Thousands…

Why Kashmir’s Lal Chowk is an eyewitness to wretched political history since 1947

August 14, 2015 Editor

The Ghanta Ghar located in the city centre is also a witness to a lot of bloodshed and violence for the past 26 years. Many historians agree that Kashmir’s Lal Chowk (Red Square) was named after the renowned Red Square of Moscow by a Sikh leftist intellectual BPL Bedi, the author of Naya Kashmir. Bedi, father of famous Indian film actor Kabir Bedi, was Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s close confidant. And Naya Kashmir was an important constitutional framework for Jammu and Kashmir under autocratic Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh’s rule. Those days,…

Article 35A is beyond challenge

August 14, 2015 Editor

Article 371A of the Constitution of India clearly says: “ Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, – ( a) no Act of Parliament in respect of – ( i) religion or social practices of the Nagas, ( ii) Naga customary law and procedure, ( iii) administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law, ( iv) ownership and transfer of land and its resources, shall apply to the State of Nagaland unless the legislative Assembly of Nagaland by a resolution so decides.” This provision inserted in 1962…