Declassify Kashmir: Let people in India Know the Whole Truth
PUNCHLINE Declassify Kashmir By Z. G. Muhammad Thirty-five years back, like Banquo’s ghost, a couple of questions haunted my mind at regular intervals. Why Sheikh Abdullah, the man Friday of Jawaharlal Nehru who had greeted Indian troops on their landing at Srinagar airport on October 27, 1947, and made the “accession” of the State possible was six years later unceremoniously dismissed as Prime Minister of the State and imprisoned. Moreover, if there was something outside … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Perspectives
Nostalgia: Our Cultural Kinship with Kashghar
Nostalgia Abdullah Nankabab Wala ZGM Sometimes, recalling my childhood, I start believing that every one of us in our right was a Michelangelo- ‘and for us, every block of stone had a statue in it,’ and sculptor inside us always discovered it. From a small grass shoot to a tiny attractive black and purple beetle moving gracefully underneath the turf everything around stimulated our imagination and we conjured a world of our own on our ‘mental-canvas.’ … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk, Perspectives
Silent Mothers With Million Word Woeful Stories
PUNCHLINE Our Sombre Sunday Z.G. Muhammad It was a sunny April Sunday, just, following the historic Sunday, when 2.3 million people of three districts of Kashmir, Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Badgam had registered their protest against the perpetuation of the uncertainty about future of the State through ballot- by boycotting the by-elections for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency. Nonetheless, despite the apple trees in full blossoms and vast tracts of mustards fields splashed with gold dust, the April Sunday was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured, Kashmir-Talk, Perspectives, Point of view
Elections In J&K Never Meant bijli, sadak, and Pani
PUNCHLINE 2017 Elections Demolished Dominant Narrative By Z.G. Muhammad Some sentences, ostensibly inconsequential make much bigger statements that even the author does not intend. Former Indian External Affair Minister in the NDA government, Jaswant Singh (5 December 1998 – 1 July 2002) in his book, ‘A Call to Honour- in Service of Emergent India’ has written about September 2002 Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir, defeat of the ruling party and entry of new coalition in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Perspectives
Who Divides Them?
What Divides Them? Or Should I say who divides them Z.G. MUHAMMAD In larger political struggles, it is the belief in great ideal, such as “freedom is indivisible ‘that binds together people from diverse backgrounds and makes them a cohesive force for translating their ideologies and dreams into a reality. That bonds for achieving a cherished political goals are far stronger than cords for sharing comforts of power. This historical reality however, does not hold true about … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured, Kashmir-Talk, Perspectives, Point of view
In Defence of M.A. Jinnah
Mountbatten, Jinnah and Nehru M. YUSUF BUCH To hold Jinnah “solely responsible” for the Kashmir dispute is, of course, sheer calumny but sentiment and ethics apart, it is also a breathtakingly grotesque contention. From the whole tangle of personalities, Indian, Pakistani or Kashmiri involved in the origination and hardening of the dispute either by commission or by omission, it foists blame on the one whose role was least indictable, indeed most honorable and based on perspicuous judgment. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Perspectives
Indian Women Support Kashmir Cause?
Will the women group take the lead? Z.G. MUHAMMAD Scepticism and disbelieving about anything coming from New Delhi has largely become our second nature. This trust deficit is not needless. It has a history. Sixty-five years long history, dating back to first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Notwithstanding, my disbelief, I see a recently held one day women convention at Kashmir University by a New Delhi based senior journalist Seema Mustafa as worth noticing. In a way, it … Read entire article »
Filed under: Perspectives