KASHMIR and IDPs

By K N Pandita

“Chapter I of this book (My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir) deals with ten most critical days from January 19 to 28, 1990. It recalls the background of events and also describes the first of a series of stabs in my back”, writes Jagmohan, the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir in the Preface to his above-named book. To the hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) 19 January, 1990 remains the day of their holocaust. Continue Reading…

By K N Pandita

Kashmiri youth are puzzled to know that in his interview to Karan Thapar, Omar Abdullah has sounded a pessimistic note about his interest in politics. He has not given any cogent reason for the change of heart. Such depressing moods are the result of a combination of various factors, personal, circumstantial or professional. His abstention from politics will be a loss to the Kashmiri youth in the long run. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

Lately, Farooq Abdullah said he would approach China for helping Kashmiris retrieve the special status. He is disappointed with the Western powers and the Islamic countries. Simultaneously, his political adversary, the Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) is excited over the revival of the Ottoman Empire’s past Islamic grandeur to reach Kashmir in its new avatar – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a new-found Islamist. It shows that Kashmiri leaders want to re-enact the old story of inviting a foreign power to rule over them. Continue Reading…

Book Review – by Dr Tej N Dhar, former professor of English and Dean, College of Arts Asmara University, Eritrea

Ten Studies in Kashmir History and Politics by Kashinath Pandit;

New Delhi: Indian Council for Social Science Research in association with Academic Foundation, New Delhi, 2019; pp. 337; price: Rs 850 less discount 20 per cent; HB, Order your copy with knp627@gmail.com Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

The decision of the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration to participate in the grassroots election process viz. DDC, Local Bodies and Panchayats in the Union Territory, is a sensible and pragmatic one. What has made them break the jinx is the realization of the damage they chose to inflict on their respective political parties by adopting an indifferent attitude towards the democratic process in the past. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

Under “popular” rule pompously introduced on 28th of October 1947, and continues till date, the number one agenda on Naya Kashmir Manifesto borrowed by the Leftist ideologues of National Conference from the Constitution of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan through the instrumentality of a baptized Indian was of land to the tillers. Thousands of kanals of land owned by the old school landlords of the State (jagirdars) of the days of Maharajas were taken away from them without any compensation and distributed among the tillers. This was called the first Land Reforms Act of a popular regime in Kashmir in direct contrast to the land reform policy of independent India. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

Gupkar lobby’s utterance is in effect the dirge for the demise of dynastic rule and power. The dynamics of history is that old order changes yielding place to new. This is as true about the Sheikh House as that of Maharaja Hari Singh. The history repeated itself after seventy-three years. Nations enjoy permanence but not the monarchs or their glamour. Continue Reading…

By K.N. Pandita

India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire in J&K on the night of 30-31 December 1948. India minced no words and claimed that the Maharaja had signed the Instrument of Accession of his entire state to the Indian Union and the latter pronounced J&K as an integral part of the Indian Union. Continue Reading…

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…