Beef Discourse Is A Ticking Bomb
PUNCHLINE Devious Discourses By Z.G. Muhammad For past fifteen months, there has been hardly a day when a new ‘hegemonic discourse’ was not set into motion in the state. Some were brought into public domain directly by Delhi and some through its hanger-on politicians in the state. Articulating decades old intentions of the BJP for abrogating Article 370 of Indian Constitution, Narendra Modi BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate in first election rally in Jammu on December 1, 2013 in fact kick-started the renewed ‘hegemonic discourses’ by calling for a debate on validity and efficacy of this Article. That, when seen in the light of discussions in the Indian Constituent Assembly at the time of its introduction testifies Jammu and Kashmir is a Dispute whose future is yet to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Flood Affected 2014 And Lip Service
PUNCHLINE Flood 2014 Lessons Learnt and Not-learnt Z. G. Muhammad It has been a long wait. For eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours, five million flood effected people have been waiting for relief and rehabilitation from the Mufti Syed led government. For failure of the NC-Congress coalition governments to rise to the occasion during the 7 September 2014 floods, in 2015, elections people voted the Abdullahs out of power. For Abdullahs that had reigned supreme in the power … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Hurriyats Not Third Party?
Simla Agreement Syndrome Z.G. Muhammad India and Pakistan, on August 23, 2015 after cancelling National Security Advisors talks added another sad chapter to their long history of acrimony and mistrust. In July, Prime Ministers of two countries during summit in Ufa had agreed upon holding talks at the level of National Security Advisors. Notwithstanding, scepticism about holding of these talks looming large, after political commentators in New Delhi started looking at the joint statement issued at the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured
Nehru Owes An Explanation to People of India
PUNCHLINE Why Talks Fail? Z.G. Muhammad The much hyped meeting of the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan converted the corporate television studios into war rooms. The reason for the high voltage drama that dominated the television studios and the newsrooms and engaged the two countries in war of words was Pakistan symbolically attaching primacy to the Kashmir Dispute by inviting leaders of the Hurriyat Conference to a reception-meeting with NSA, Sartaj Aziz. The NSA meeting had been slated, after Modi and Nawaz Sharif met in July at Ufa in Russia. Notwithstanding, Pakistan representatives goof up in allowing deletion of Kashmir from the joint statement, it was expected to give a new start to the suspended dialogue between the two counties. New Delhi, had called off the Secretary Level talks in August 2014 … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk
Changing Power Equations and Resolution of Kashmir
‘BURDEN OF HISTORY’ Z. G. MUHAMMAD Independent India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and Home Minister, Sardar Patel were not on the same page on overwhelmingly Muslim majority State becoming part of union of India. Nehru, was obsessively working for it since 1946. And after Lord Mountbatten arrived in India as the last British Viceroy, Nehru reviving his old friendship with him ‘never lost an opportunity to ‘arguing in favour of Jammu and Kashmir joining India.’ In June 1947, before Mountbatten leaving for Srinagar for meeting Maharaja Hari Singh, Nehru handed over a memorandum to the Viceroy arguing for accession of the state to India- and this memorandum became Viceroy’s bible on Kashmir. Contrary to Nehru’s overzealousness about Kashmir, many historians have recorded that Sardar Patel was not interested in the State joining India. … Read entire article »
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Shimla Agreement- A Diplomatic Feat by Abdul Majid Zaragar
SHIMLA AGREEMENT-VICTORY IN WAR & DEFEAT IN DIPLOMACY By Abdul Majid Zargar Noted columnist Zahid G. Mohammad has written an incisive article on Shimla agreement reached between India & Pakistan in July 1972 after the latter’s defeat & dismemberment in 1971 war with India. It was published in a local English daily on 6th July 2015 and disseminates much of the information surrounding this international agreement. However, there is still some information on this agreement which is … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Prem Nath Bazaz’s Writings and Kashmir Freedom Movement
. Revisiting Bazaz’s Writings. By Z.G. Muhammad I do not like Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz. So don’t many others in my tribe. Let me use a harsher word, I hate him for his Machiavellian role in 1935, in misguiding the protagonist of the movement led by the Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference. The Muslim Conference had largely adopted the 17 point memorandum presented in October 1924, by the Muslim intelligentsia to Viceroy Lord Reading seeking justice for beleaguered … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Featured