It was expressed long before the parliamentary elections of 2014 that India will soon be made free from the dynastic congress party that has been responsible for declaring the country a secular republic soon after its independence in 1947. Appeasing the minorities for securing the vote bank was another accusation against the party. The slogan ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ (Congress-free India)[Read More…]
Digital technology has demolished the borders between different countries without any war or confrontation. The same technology has come to the rescue of those families living across the Indo-Pak border who were separated during the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. More relief has come to those thousands of divided families in the Kashmir who have never been allowed to[Read More…]
The imminent war in one of the eastern European countries has seen the comeback of the cold war situation between Russia and the United States for the last few weeks. Both countries show no flexibility in their stand on Ukraine, which has been in the grip of severe cold, surrounded by arms and ammunition, and mostly, the uncertain future. In[Read More…]
‘Those contractors who have been doing business all over the world in the name of “Kashmir shops”, do they realize what dilemma this nation is in at the moment? Isn’t it necessary to give them the message that a large segment of the public has long since awakened to your shops’? These were the expressions of a few Kashmiris in[Read More…]
‘China eyes on Afghan copper’, ‘Pakistan has become the mistress of China’, ‘Britain is a lapdog of the America’, ‘France is furious over the submarine deal’, ‘India trying re-entry in Kabul through Iran via Russia’. The media across the globe has turned into a noisy circus with its fear-provoking news headlines. It is forcing many people to say goodbye to[Read More…]
“Often, I think of taking my own life. I go to orchards and choose the place where I had made the gallows. My mother knows that I am going through a lot of stress, so she has become my shadow. The day I saw the helplessness in my brother’s eyes when he was being arrested by Indian security forces for[Read More…]
“If you are lucky to get a bed in hospital, you have to buy an oxygen cylinder every eight hours to keep your patient alive. Then, you get the only dead body back”. A boy carrying the dead body of his mother in an auto-rickshaw tells the reporter in the Capital of India. “I spent seven days outside the hospital[Read More…]
Whenever and wherever there is a discourse on the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir, everyone attempts to present this dispute with their spin. India and Pakistan narrate this conflict following their national policies, but how unfortunate that some Kashmiris who, far from the truth, repeat cliché, blame each other or the whole Kashmiri leadership for the current turmoil. Every[Read More…]
Every conscientious person in the world strives for peace and harmony among the neighbours. Kashmir has been crying for it for decades. They are the worst sufferers of the hostile relations between India and Pakistan. Always terrorized, humiliated, and killed on all sides for the last seventy years, especially those families living across the Line of Control between two countries.[Read More…]
I have never overcome the nightmare of those scenes of the early 1990s when the Indian soldiers had laid pre-dawn siege to our neighbourhood one day. The soldiers had their fingers on triggers ready to shoot anybody not following their orders. Our house, which was in the lap of a green pasture, was surrounded by countless soldiers. More military convoys[Read More…]
While Imran Khan’s recent speech in Kotli has caused quite a rouse in some political circles in Pakistan, most Kashmiris living across the Line of Control have again pinned their hopes that Pakistan will never back down in helping them to achieve their complete independence from both the countries. Addressing a huge rally in ‘Azad Kashmir’ on the occasion of[Read More…]
I had set off too early to catch her before the body of her slain son would reach the village. After killing young boys, the Indian security forces would return their bodies to their parents for burial. This favour had stopped now. They bury boys anywhere they think would not attract a sea of mourners. Her boy was killed in[Read More…]
More than one million nomads of Jammu and Kashmir, mostly from the Gujjar and Bakkarwal communities, who prefer living in temporary sheds or mud houses in the forests and mountains, are facing forcible evictions from the government. The action has outraged all political and social circles across the region. Contrary to Kashmiri Muslims, the nomads of the Jammu and Kashmir[Read More…]
Ever since Pakistan has signalled its wish to make Gilgit-Baltistan fifth province, not only have Pakistan’s own political outfits been in a state of disarray, but it has reportedly become a major ‘issue of concern’ in India’s military and political leadership. Various aspects of adopting a new military strategy are being deliberated upon. In the border region of Ladakh, where[Read More…]
While ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured people that the time had now come when gold would grow instead of grass, milk canals would flow in exchange for water in the rivers and springs and the skies would sight flight of Kashmiris not the birds. Article 370 of the[Read More…]
History has become witness to the fact that when plans to destroy the identity or the character of any nation were conspired in political institutions, one of the strategies induced in the society was to create social chaos and confusion. Creating an environment of threat perception, robbing of identity, grabbing of property or reducing social cohesions had been made the[Read More…]
Any news from Kashmir to the outside world is mostly related to the armed confrontation that gives details of the exchange of fire between militants and Indian security forces. Then, the clashes are claimed to have killed “terrorists” who were equipped with heavy arms and ammunition. For a long time now, there has been a successful attempt to create this[Read More…]
Had Urdu been the spoken language of Europe or America, it is quite evident that the revolutionary verse of the famous Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz would have become the rallying point of the recent protests that have been taking place in most of the big cities after the gruesome killing of George Floyd. The unarmed Black man was killed[Read More…]
“My enemy’s enemy is my friend, come to Jammu and Kashmir and realise its intensity among the ordinary people living near the border with China. The land beneath you will feel like it has slipped away”. This is the observation of many analysts in South Asia who have reported the strong indignation of locals against Indian establishment in the context[Read More…]
Dear Baba, You will never believe it. The 8 billion population of the world is put under lockdown due to the spread of a pandemic the corona virus. The blossoms of spring are no more infusing new life into us. The experts say this spiky shaped virus has mutated from two mammals; one of them is a bat. That same[Read More…]
Dear Baba, Since you left us, nothing has much changed except that we could not celebrate Bebo’s birthday last year. I forgot to tell you about the postponement of marriage of your nephew because he was arrested and sent to jail outside Kashmir. Since then, he has been shifted from court to prison to unknown places which we are unable[Read More…]
She cries in pain, Mother, hold me tight, I feel cold. Mother tells her, It is not cold, It is the icicles making you chill. She laments, Mother, hold me tight. It is darker than the night around, Mother tells her, It is not the night that is dark. It is the burnt coal surrounding the village. She whispers, Mother,[Read More…]
Exile, Or, Home? They asked, Which home? The one you bulldozed, Or the one you occupied, They are furious, And, Outraged, Or, the one that is a rubble, They look They scare, stay there, Hands up, How can I stay without name Without face Or without eyes. Leave then, Go in exile They laugh Or smirk, How can I go[Read More…]
I heard In real or in a dream? Home is white… Or red? Tulip tree is buried…. In ice, Or in debris? Kangri is in shed. Or dead in the cold? My pheran… The one with red dots on chest…. Is like a scarecrow on tilted pole, Or cut into shreds? Who tells me?????? My umbilical cord…… Is missing……………… In[Read More…]
15th August: Early Morning: After entering the premises of Srinagar airport, I must admit that my nation has been robbed of its identity, its constitution, its land and its skies. My people are caged to mourn this broad daylight robbery by putting nine hundred thousand guns at their heads. The valley has become graveyard of silence. The road is deserted.[Read More…]
13-14th Aug 2019: Midnight: Sitting beside the bed of an old patient in SMHS hospital is not easy when everything seems to have been made to collapse as a “collective punishment” to eight million people of Kashmir on 5th august by a mere government order. This old and lifeless patient is on his own and in severe pain. His eyes[Read More…]
13th August 2019…( Day after Eid): No sooner had the Sun turned into the red balloon over the horizon there is a knock at my main gate. The lane is dark; my neighbours prefer dark lanes so that they can watch the outside shadows through their windowpanes. I turn the lights off, withdraw curtain of my windowpane to see who[Read More…]
The JK bank calendar on my wall shows 12th in red today. Remember JK bank, once the economic backbone of the state, which has gone through the raids, interrogations and management changes recently. This was in fact the prelude to the political annihilation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir on 5th August The red on the calendar means it[Read More…]
Diary 2: 9thaugust 2019 Please minus 6th, 7th and 8th August 2019 from my life. These three days of my incarceration are equal to three centuries of subjugation but my isolation, apprehension and fear have become so overbearing that I have lost the sense and count of the days or dates. This day takes me back to my past memory[Read More…]
day1: 5th august 2019…. It is the morning, not the one it was yesterday. I could open door or window or heart yesterday or I could go out to talk about the leaked government orders which directed officials to prepare stocks of essentials at least for three to six months. I could ask questions to my local officials who would[Read More…]
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
“Making a thriller from grain” 
Key Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Likely To Collapse In 2025-2095 
Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
The Nijjar Murder and Indian Government’s alleged “involvement”: Reactions and Reflections 
France Will Pull Out Its Diplomats And Military From Niger, Says Macron 
Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM 
Hunger in Africa has its roots in a History of Colonialism and Neo-colonialism 
The Climate March: Magnificent and Misdirected 
Imagining a Progressive Pentagon 
“Lost Voices of Fentanyl” Rally at the White House 
Indian Government Must First Evict Dalai Lama & his Followers before Admonishing Canada for Separatist Activities 
Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
Hate Speech Inside Parliament: Reaching a New Low 
Criminal Justice And Freedom of Speech 
75,000 Climate Protesters Marched In New York With Demand To End Fossil Fuels 
On the Dark Side of the Moon.. 
Avoiding the War on Terror would have saved over 10 million lives at home and abroad 
The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
Ukrainian president holds crisis talks in Washington amid failure of “spring offensive” 
Zelensky Faces Difficult Time In Washington D.C. 
Stumbling Towards Old Age And Looking for Someone to Lean On 
Tolstoy’s Dilemma 
Ukraine Peace Activists Protest During Zelensky White House Visit 
“Our world is becoming unhinged”: Antonio Guterres 
How Chances of Direct War between the USA and Russia Are Increasing G20 Biofuel Alliance threatens Food security 
Thousands Of Auto Workers Strike In Three U.S. Plants, Face Financial Hardship 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
