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2014 Assembly Elections and Discourses Thereafter
PUNCHLINE Z.G. MUHAMMAD Curtains will slide on 2014 assembly election on December 29. Two to three days after the results a new team of ministers will strut across the corridors of the grey concrete building- supposed symbol of power and authority in the state. Like all previously held elections in the state this elections will also be relegated to the footnotes of the Kashmir history. Majority of those elected like their predecessors will not be mentioned even in the footnotes. Nevertheless, this election has sparked some new debates that will continue for some time to be a tug of war between the ‘dominant discourse’ and ‘peoples discourse.’ For the Kashmir narrative, change of guard in the state or which of the ‘accessionist’ parties wins majority is of no consequences. Some highly optimistic friends … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Indian Corporate Media and Kashmir Election- Setting An Agenda
PUNCHLINE Z.G. MUHAMMAD Psephology is not my cup of tea. So, unlike some of my friends, I have no predictions to make about the results of the ongoing Assembly elections in the state. I have no idea, if the ‘faded-green’ outsmarts the ‘scarlet-red’ or the scarlet-red beats the saffron or the saffron outmanoeuvres both the green and the red. Two phases of the five the phased elections are over. The official figures maintain that the voter turnout in these phases have been unprecedented. The assertions may be true or untrue. I am not to contest these figures. I am not bothered which party had an edge in these phases. It is the debates on the corporate television channels about the voter turnout that set me thinking. These debates continue to dominate these … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Success Of SAARC DOVETAILED TO KASHMIR?
SAARC survival can be assured once India and Pakistan end their acrimony Punchline Z.G. MUHAMMAD The words of political astuteness hardly die. In complex political situations, these spontaneously start ringing up in the minds of political observers, commentators and historians. Historian Ramachandra Guha, starts chapter titled ‘A Valley Bloody And Beautiful’ of his magnum opus ‘India After Gandhi- the history of worlds largest democracy’ with a quote from Jawaharlal Nehru and ends it up with four quotes from … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Washington: Third Party Mediation in Kashmir
To be read along-with Obama’s proposed visit to India Punchline Z.G. MUHAMMAD The “Freedomists” are busy in extending a helping hand to the flood hit people. Ostensibly have freed themselves from their announced election boycott campaign. And have almost left the space to the ‘electoralists’ to play the ball. The BJP and its team of IT experts from Mumbai have started a blazing media campaign in the state. Flooding media with advertisements, the party has almost outsmarted the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk
Impact of US Withdrawal From Afghnsthan On South Asia
Z.G. MUHAMMAD Just one and a half month from now, 2014 with all its politics will be relegated to the pages of history. Three years back Washington had announced that from July 2011 NATO and U S troops will start withdrawing from Afghanistan and by December 2014 the withdrawal would be complete. From the security point, the decision being significant the wait for the lost contingent of US troops departing from Kabul started in South Asia in general and India and Pakistan in particular started from 2014. The announcement had generated lots of debates across the world. Many experts looked at withdrawal announcement with a ‘deep sense of pessimism’ and expressed their anxiety at the decision- the worry was more perceptible in the neighbouring countries particularly India, Pakistan and Iran. The … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take
Next Role-Player in Jammu and Kashmir?
From the trashcan of politics Z.G. MUHAMMAD For understanding contemporary Kashmir politics, sometimes it is rewarding to stir through trashcan of history. No moment one stirs through it, some nauseating stories come to the surface that one finds are being replicated even today. The other day glancing through the broadsheets and reading about eagerness of some “electoral-politicians” signing ‘Faustian-contracts’ for strutting across the corridors of power for some time- a line from ‘As You Like It’ less read Shakespearean drama, repeatedly resounded in my mind: “Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not”. Seen in historical perspective the quoted line could be an appropriate title for history of sixty seven years relations between New Delhi and Kashmir “electoral- politicians”. With New Delhi, any politicians has been or is okay, so far he … Read entire article »
Filed under: Kashmir-Talk
Understanding Dynamics of Electoral Politics in Kashmir.
Z.G. Muhammad Some forty two years back a leading New Delhi newspaper had published an editorial titled, “Weep Over This Victory”. This incisive and piercing commentary on the 1972 State Assembly elections, had stirred my young mind and made me think if ‘electoral politics’ in the state could ever be credible. Thinking this piece of writing was worth preserving for posterity I had pasted it on a white sheet of paper. It was part of my small archives till silverfish feasted upon it and consumed it completely but during many an elections including those held after 1996, I re-read it and found it as apt for all the elections held in the state as it was at the time of its publication. All these election with much trumpeted songs of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Editor's Take, Kashmir-Talk