Category: Interview

Interview

No one can scrap Articles 370, 35A: Hasnain Masoodi

Editor

Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi of the J&K High Court is credited with dethroning the queen of Kashmir politics, Mehbooba Mufti, from south Kashmir by winning the Anantnag seat. While talking, Masoodi said as long as the rules of the game were followed, nobody, not even Parliament, had the power to scrap Articles 370 and 35A Now that the BJP has come to power, how do you, as a former HC judge and an MP, see the future of Articles 370 and 35A?Even if the BJP has come back to power,…

Read More

The decision on Article 35A soon: Jugal Kishore Sharma

Editor

Elected to the Lok Sabha for the second time, Jugal Kishore Sharma, while talking to us, said besides taking forward the development tasks, the party’s priority would be to abrogate Article 35A as was included in the ‘Sankalp Patr’. After getting second term to represent J&K in the Lok Sabha, what are your priorities?I have been always a representative of the people of my constituency in the LS. My priorities are the same as were after 2014 to extend maximum Central beneficial schemes which alleviate problems of the constituency, including…

Read More

Protecting Article 370 top priority: Akbar Lone

Editor

After winning the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, NC’s Mohammad Akbar Lone is looking forward to defend Article 370 and take steps to find a resolution to the Kashmir issue. Lone spells out his priorities and goals. As the NC will be representing all three Lok Sabha seats from Kashmir in Parliament, what will be your priorities? Our biggest priority will be to safeguard Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution in Parliament. Our party will also strive for the resolution of the Kashmir issue…this has been our motive always. What…

Read More

Never said J&K conflict was ‘Hindu India versus Muslim Kashmir’: Mirwaiz Umar

Editor

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq , chairman of the Hurriyat Conference and the chief cleric of the Valley’s main mosque, spoke about the separatist body’s position on a peaceful resolution for the Kashmir problem, the difference in approach between the Vajpayee and Modi governments, and why the Hurriyat has failed to make headway.  When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, you were hopeful of forward movement on Kashmir citing your experiences under (late former PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee era. Does that hope still exist? There has been a change in policy as far…

Read More

You can’t buy land in Himachal, Sikkim, so why target J&K? M Y Tarigami

Editor

‘The BJP wants to find an excuse to polarise people.’ ‘Whatever rights J&K has got from the Constitution of India, they want to snatch it.’ ‘By doing so, they are harming J&K as well as India.’ A Delhi-based NGO, We The Citizens, and a few individuals recently filed pleas in the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional validity of Article 35A of the Constitution, which gives special rights and privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. At the same time, several interlocutory petitions have been filed in support of Article 35A by…

Read More

BJP not into government formation: Ram Madhav

Editor

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kashmir point man Ram Madhav said on Thursday that his party was making no attempt to work out numbers needed for forming a government in the state, after it withdrew from the coalition with PDP. “No, not from our side,” Madhav said when asked whether BJP will try to work for a new political formation to avoid midterm elections in the state. In an exclusive interview with Kashmir Post, Madhav said his party has numbers in Jammu but “doesn’t have any say” in Kashmir. “Show me the…

Read More

It was a rainbow alliance: Ram Madhav on why BJP split with PDP

Editor

In an interview BJP general secretary Ram Madhav explains why the party ended its alliance with Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP in Jammu and Kashmir, and what comes next Ram Madhav is a national general secretary of the BJP, who played a key role in stitching up an alliance between his party and the Peoples Democratic Party of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. Madhav worked closely with Sayeed and then with his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed, steering the alliance through a difficult course between 2015 and now. He spoke about the reasons that led…

Read More

There is no solution now for Kashmir: AS Dulat

Editor

If politicians fail to engage then military and intelligence chiefs of India and Pakistan and indeed the people of the two countries must carry the engagement forward, suggests the former RAW chief Indo-Pak relations may improve but there is no solution in Kashmir under the present circumstances, says AS Dulat, who has been in the news ever since he jointly ‘authored’ a book with Lt General Asad Durrani, a former head of Pakistan’s ISI and Aditya Sinha. Moderated by Sinha, Dulat, a former chief of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW)…

Read More

Kashmiris are not Secessionists or Terrorists: Mohammad Shafi Pandit

Editor

‘The people of the state can be won over by love, and not by swords’ Mohammad Shafi Pandit’s soft-spoken erudition flows through the telephone line from Srinagar. It is only later I learn that militants had tried to assassinate him in September 1995. He was then the additional chief secretary, finance, Jammu and Kashmir, and was visiting his sister’s home in Pampore, 12 km south of Srinagar. Once he entered, within minutes, the house was surrounded by 30 armed militants. One militant came in and demanded three things from the civil servant: A…

Read More

Long lasting conflict in Kashmir is a big hurdle for economic growth: Ambassador Sabit Subasic

Editor

Youth in Kashmir are capable to select the best leaders: Ambassador Sabit Subasic  Bosnia and Herzegovinian Ambassador Dr. Sabit Subasic believes the intractable conflict in Kashmir valley has drastically affected the state’s economic growth and that the tourism sector has been a victim of negative publicity. Dr. Subasic spoke about his impressions from his recent visit to the state. What was purpose of your visit to Kashmir? Jammu Kashmir is a state in India that I had never visited. Being ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH), it is my duty…

Read More