Srinagar, we were repeatedly told, has been transformed into a “smart city.” Ironically, it was never as congested, chaotic, or directionless as it became after that declaration. If “smartness” is...

Here is a peculiar trait in the Indian state’s political psychology – an inconsistency that has persisted from Nehru to Modi, from soft separatism to muscular nationalism. India prides itself...

After the recent blast in Delhi and the arrests that followed, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah lamented that “all Kashmiris are now being looked at with suspicion.” His outrage is...

In politics, defeats are often described as temporary setbacks. But some losses carry the weight of a verdict – a message so sharp that pretending not to hear it becomes...

When Omar Abdullah announced the revival of the Darbar Move, he justified it as a gesture of justice toward Jammu – an attempt to give the region its due after...

Kashmir once had leaders whose silence carried weight and whose words moved mountains. Today, some of our politics feels like it’s happening not in legislative halls but outside a tea...

Once, Kashmir thought. It did not just speak. It argued, contemplated, doubted, prayed, painted, sang, and rebelled – with reason as its lamp. It was a land where thought was...

There was a time when the Darbar Move made sense. There were no servers, no scanners, no internet. Records were stored in rusted trunks and wooden almirahs that smelled of...

One year into power, Kashmir got speeches instead of solutions, optics instead of outcomes, and convoys instead of compassion. The promises that rode to power have now parked in photo-ops....

Every decade, Srinagar gets a new masterplan. New alignments for ring roads, new zones for housing, new dreams of a “smart city.” But drive just ten kilometers out – to...