WIDE ANGLE

 Raouf Rasool

Problem of beggary

Problem of beggary

Come Ramazan, Valley witnesses an unprecedented surge in the problem of beggary. Though a social evil, but here in the Valley the mendicancy has been flourishing with more and more people including small children joining the ranks of beggars to swell their number to teasing levels. There is hardly any nook or corner where there […]

 Raouf Rasool

Conflict, and selfish economic interests within

Conflict, and selfish economic interests within

Successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir have been face to face with a severe social and economic decline here. In post-2002 Jammu and Kashmir, the State governments have remained very vocal about bringing peace through development and this line of action has been shared, endorsed and supported by the Union governments in New Delhi too. […]

 Raouf Rasool

Shifting morality of the state!

Shifting morality of the state!

Today a whole lot of Indians find it difficult to reconcile with the way the India as a State conducts itself, both internationally as well as with its domestic subjects, particularly the have-nots. And their misgivings are completely not unfounded. Isn’t it the same country which pioneered the Non-aligned Movement at a time when entire […]

 Raouf Rasool

It’s heads I win and tails people loose …

It’s heads I win and tails people loose …

This week saw Srinagar Mayor asserting that action will be initiated against all those who have violated construction norms, including commercial complexes that have come up in various residential areas of the city in violation of the Srinagar Master Plan, or encroached on the government land. Now if it really happens, it will be appreciable. […]

 Raouf Rasool

Debate on special status lends fresh coinage to politics here

Debate on special status lends fresh coinage to politics here

Thanks to the raging controversy about the J&K’s special status, the two regional parties here have got a new lease of life. Having been pushed into the dock, these parties which were devoid of issues to talk with the people have suddenly got an opportunity to engage in some fresh rhetorical warfare. And this is […]

 Raouf Rasool

Shifting morality of the state

Shifting morality of the state

Today a whole lot of Indians find it difficult to reconcile with the way the India conducts itself, both internationally as well as with its domestic subjects, particularly with the have-nots. And their misgivings are completely not unfounded. Isn’t it the same country which pioneered the Non-Aligned Movement at a time when entire world was […]

 Raouf Rasool

Politics of brazen lies

Politics of brazen lies

To lie is a ‘sin’ or at least deplorable. This has got universal acceptability and people cutting across the differences of religions, and cultures and other markers agree that lying is inacceptable. Morally speaking, when someone lies about something he/she is and should be looked down upon by others as being insincere and deceitful. In […]

 Raouf Rasool

Nobody changes, yet everybody wants change! 

Nobody changes, yet everybody wants change! 

Somewhere in mid-sixties, an American political organizer after finishing his lecture at the Stanford University was approached by a Soviet professor of political economics from University of Leningrad. Since both these people shared diametrically opposite worldviews about the global politics and its core definitions, the opening of the discussions between the two was obviously illustrative […]

 Raouf Rasool

I think, therefore, I am

I think, therefore, I am

‘I am Mr. A…, and I am from Kashmir.” This assertion from a Kashmiri participant could have perhaps gone unnoticed, but when another Kashmiri guy introduced himself in similar fashion – “I am Mr. B…, and I am from Kashmir,” one could see it raising the brow of the Indian contingent. And then the third […]

 Raouf Rasool

Exploring better ways of political expression

Exploring better ways of political expression

In the midst of the gassing and violence by the Chicago Police and National Guard during the 1968 Democratic Convention, many students, having found themselves at the receiving end of the police violence, went to meet one of the great organizational gurus of the time. After exchanging pleasantries, obviously the discussion that ensued centered around […]