The turnout figures of this year’s assembly polls in Kashmir are a silent scream of a people under excruciating mental torture for more than six decades. The story the figures tell is not a fairytale romance with New Delhi’s version of calibrated democracy or a disillusionment with the Kashmir cause, but symbolic of a strong […]
After the horrific terror attacks in Mumbai, the international community is leaning heavily on Pakistan to act against forces that have placed themselves outside the pale of the law but were subsisting mostly because of technicalities, or because the state simply wished to avoid getting into complications. The prime minister’s finger-pointing at Pakistan – in […]
Mercifully, Jammu and Kashmir is not yet at a stage where the old adage about politics being the last refuge of the scoundrel could be said to hold true across the spectrum. Undoubtedly, we have specimens of venality pervading throughout the body politic, but there also are honourable exceptions who valiantly adhere to a high […]
Official encomiums to the charms of Kashmir are seldom complete without harking back to the words of a smitten emperor – as if they have a magical pull to draw people to the valley despite glaring evidence to the contrary. Since there is little to show for what has been done for Kashmir in modern […]
It must be some exotic variant of democracy where the people’s will is sought to be determined by locking them up behind closed doors – as if voter exuberance were expected to sweep all before its stormy tide. The irony of it cannot have entirely escaped decision-makers in New Delhi however hardnosed they might be. […]
Were it not for its contrary actions, the government would rob the very bees of their sting with its sweet and reassuring words. But the inveterate delinquent that it is, it cannot put its money where its mouth is. Only a few days ago, an official spokesman defended the imposition of undeclared curfew in the […]
KO SUPPLEMENTS
