Peace Watch » Archive
Beyond Gallows: Afzal’s hanging is not just an event, but a history in itself
Z.G. MUHAMMAD Sometimes, letters speak more than volumes of books. On Saturday, February 9, I was one amongst the millions- shell-shocked on hearing about ‘surreptitious’ execution of Muhammad Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail. I had never seen the man but suddenly I struck a bond with him – a deeper bond. Perhaps millions across the state struck a bond with him with same intensity. My eyes soaked and my heart mourning, I stumbled across a bunch of published letters sent from death cell by Muhammad Maqbool Butt, founding leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front to his friends, compatriots, comrades and family members. These letters provide an insight into fortitude, foresightedness and courage of conviction of this giant of a man, an ‘intellectual’ and a Spartacus in his own right. In … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
India-Pakistan- Kashmir 2013
Z.G. MUHAMMAD Situation on the home turf during 2013 is difficult to predict- if it would be unruffled as all through 2012 or shaking as during 2010. However, there are indications that during the next ten months fulcrum to India and Pakistan diplomacy will be Kashmir. In all likelihood, the clichés like CBMs, Cross LoC trade and MNF status will take a back seat and the diplomatic circles in India and Pakistan will once again be abuzz with phrases like Kashmir ‘nuclear flash point’, ‘peace to Afghanistan passes through gates of Kashmir’ and ‘South-Asian security hinges on Kashmir. There debate over ‘Kashmir being a bilateral issue’ between the two countries or an ‘international disputes’ will become louder. Moreover, as the date for draw down of US troops from Afghanistan draws nearer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Why Did Plebiscite Front Die?
Z.G. MUHAMMAD On a cold but not freezing February afternoon pushing my way through crowded and crushing Residency Road to a nearby bookshop I was stopped by an old time Plebiscite Front worker. Given to intolerance of some contemporary “top” leaders, “clerics” and their “hangers-on”, initially, I thought, he has not liked some of my writings about once towering leader or his scions. There was no anger on his face but from expressions on his face, I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
National Conference Demands Plebiscite?
Inconsistency’ we paid for and we continue to pay for it even now PUNCHLINE Z.G. MUHAMMAD Thank you Sheikh Nazir Ahmed. Thanks for your January 7, 2013 address to the National Conference workers refreshing their memory and reminding them of November 18, 1947, when outside the Palladium cinema hundreds of them had gathered to greet first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru. The Palladium cinema then functioned as emergency office of the National Conference – where summary trials of political adversaries were carried out with impunity – I may not recount enactment of those chilling dramas. It was nice of you to remind your workers about the pledge made to the people of the state by Pandit Ji– as the NC workers in Kashmir popularly called him. Standing on a table with Sheikh … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Musharraf’s Formula and Kashmir Leaders
Resurrecting A Dead letter Weave a discourse around the basic framework Punchline Z.G. MUHAMMAD Some days back, I decided not to talk about “them” or their travel to the country that was ‘conjured into statehood by the force of indomitable will’ of a leader – the will that ironically even our towering leadership lacked. I started believing whether, I talk or not, the sweeping winds of politics are there to drift away the vessels with no strong ideological moorings and anchors. Knowing, chronicles are replete with instances, that those suffering from ideological infidelity having been washed away like straws down the streams of history, I started believing that historical forces will throw up a leadership that will ‘significantly alter the course of history and even modify the map of the world’. It was the recent … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Kashmir: Moot Point For Leaders
Just A Moot Point Had leadership analyzed the failures, it would have been a different story Z.G. MUHAMMAD “Those who write contemporary history know that the reader is not a passive vessel to receive the text placed before him or her. The reader is also a citizen, a critical citizen, with individual political and idealogical preferences.” These lines from the prologue of Ramachandra Guha’s recently published book ‘India after Gandhi’, as student of contemporary history set me thinking about the challenges the present-day writers of Kashmir are confronted with while writing about current political happenings or the political events of the recent past. There can be no denying, ‘the closer one gets to the present, the more judgmental one tends to become” but this should not cause ire in political leaders or key players … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Confusing Kashmir-
“Confusion” as statecraft Z.G. MUHAMMAD It is none of my concerns. It should not be. Who visits which country and meets whom? It would be intruding into personal affairs of a leader – tall or dwarf, “theorist or disciple”- if I question his visit to any country-, Pakistan included. It is not my cup of tea to snoop or tab a leader’s visit but for it affecting me or my progeny as an individual, as a member of a society or a nation. If it is not aimed at weaving cobwebs around well defined people’s narrative’, and creating confusion for some short-term personal gains. History testifies “confusion” has been used as a ‘diplomatic’ weapon to procrastinate resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Sometime back, in this newspaper I quoted in detail from Prem Bhatia’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take