KASHMIR and IDPs

By K.N. Pandita

The angst expressed by the originators of Gupkar Declaration I and II need to thin out and become perceptional. Leaders long in seats of power tend to become an institution by default for good or mundane whatever. The Gupkar Gang, as their detractors would like to call them, belong to that specie of humanity. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

Lt. Governor Sinha cannot be singled out for his token response to the question of restoring secular profile of Kashmir Valley. Answering a press reporter about the return and restitution of the displaced community of Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits), the Lt. Governor chose to be vague and perfunctory. He has thus maintained the government’s decades-old policy of side-tracking the core of Kashmir issue. Continue Reading…

By Kashinath Pandit

As the British rulers refused to revoke Durand Line Award on the eve of Indian Independence Act, King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan secretly recruited the tribesmen to raise a lashkar for capturing Peshawar. Pakistani army planners hoodwinked him and patronized the lashkars comprising mostly the Mahsuds and Afridis. They were to be diverted to an incursion into Kashmir. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

The masterstroke of Modi government’s Kashmir policy namely the J&K Reorganization Act has put Pakistan in utter disarray. It has shattered many of its self-created myths. Its biggest embarrassment is how to arrest the fast dwindling trust it supposed the valley-based Kashmiris reposed in her bombast. That is why in a recent golf play sideline, Pakistani COAS, Gen Bajwa had quipped to one or two confidants that there were no deaths following the Indian Reorganization Act 2019 in Kashmir and “things cannot be allowed to go like that. Something has to be done.” Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

As long as Congress was in power at the Centre, National Conference seldom expressed any apprehension of Indian Parliament revoking Articles 370 and 35-A. Not only that, despite occasional protestation by the right-wing nationalist parties, the NC towing the Congress line maintained complete secrecy over Article 35-A especially when it was mysteriously and illegally enacted keeping the Parliament completely uninformed and uninvolved. Opposition often raised much noise about Nehru-Sheikh Accord but its details were never made public. The stunning perfidy surfaced only when the story of Nehru hoodwinking the Parliament came to fore after the Congress was ousted in 2014 Parliamentary election by the BJP.  Continue Reading…

By K N Pandita

Cheers to Farooq Abdullah for raking up a pertinent question “Who we are” while releasing a joint statement of six parties or Gupkar Declaration – 02. This is at the root of the politics of Kashmir Valley. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

On August 5, the nation celebrated the first anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution which had proved hurtful not only to the people of Jammu and Kashmir but the entire nation as well. Its revocation together with the reorganization of the State into two Union Territories was a historic event long-awaited by the people who put great value to the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the country. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

In any case, after a long spell of Presidential rule, the political process has to begin in the J&K. The administration has to pass into the hands of the elected government.

In the lexicon of contemporary politics, normalcy has a new connotation. Just as we may have to put up with Coronavirus so shall we have to put up with fractured normalcy. We may have to live under the shadow of the gun for a long time. Therefore normalcy cannot be taken as the latchkey for entry to the political process. Continue Reading…

By By K N Pandita

A year ago, on August 4, 2019, prominent political leaders of Kashmir Valley had come together at Farooq Abdullah’s residence on Gupkar Road in Srinagar and agreed to stay “united in their resolve to protect and defend identity, autonomy and the special status of J&K against all attacks and onslaughts whatsoever”. The decision for the meet was driven by rising speculation of “attacks and onslaughts whatsoever.” Reading between the lines, the term “whatsoever” subtly referred to Hindu-dominated NDA government while the phrase “to protect and defend identity, autonomy and the special status of J&K” implied the identity etc. of the Muslim majority of the Valley. Continue Reading…

By K N Pandita

The UN General Assembly has elected Volkan Bozkir, the veteran Turkish bureaucrat and career diplomat as the President of the 75th General Assembly Session. He will assume office in September and will be the first-ever Turkish diplomat to be elected to the high office of the UN. He won a landslide majority of 171 votes while 11 abstained. This speaks for his popularity. Continue Reading…