Shameful
It seems that ‘we the people of Kashmir’ have made a pledge to ourselves — and are under some hidden and invisible oath, that we are going to remain forever wedded to the self-inflicting behavior. That how-so-important a cause, warranting every reasonable reason to protest and agitate, but we are going to make sure that […]
Faulty public transport!
Every evening people can be seen cursing the administration when they have to burn holes in their pocket to hire auto-rickshaws for reaching their destinations. The reason being people are not able to find buses because the transporters running minibuses on various routes call off the service at will – and these days they do […]
Respect Ramazan
The amount and extent of institutionalized corruption in Jammu and Kashmir quite reasonably justifies its position among the top in the Transparency International’s list of corrupt states. Not a single day passes without some officials (almost always only the proverbial small fry) landing in the anti-corruption agencies’ dragnets, although very rarely are the ones held […]
Tame Pvt schools in Kashmir too
That Governor’s administration has issued notices to 19 private schools for charging “exorbitant” fees and forcing parents to purchase non-prescribed books and stationery from selected vendors in Jammu is a welcome development. However, instead of confining such an action to Jammu only, the government should have initiated similar measures against the private schools in Srinagar […]
Help them evolve
The ‘almost-daily’ protests and agitations in Kashmir – not only around big political developments but also about routine and mundane matters like power outages, broken roads, lack of drinking water, etc., is more than anything a sad commentary on the state’s dysfunctional systems. Irrespective of how the state chooses to look at, understand and articulate […]
Tame unscrupulous traders
“This is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, fake, cowardly, covetous… As long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life and children when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you.” This is Machiavelli, one of […]
Forest-based industry?
There are so many other potential resources that could easily change the socio-economic profile of the state. But thus far successive governments have only talked wishfully about them, while practically not much has been done to harness these resources for economic welfare of the state. Certainly forests are no exception. Now for a place which […]
Beware of divisive politics
The most daunting task for India, immediately after independence, was to manage its vast diversity. In a country of more than 500 spoken languages, scores of practising religions, hundreds of cultures and sub-cultures, this was no easy challenge. The project of state-building had to bridge the north-south divide, and find accommodation in the Union for […]
Give peace a chance
One more political worker in south Kashmir has fallen to the bullets of suspected militants. Targeting unarmed people for their political ideologies is a heinous crime and the crime is being committed in Kashmir with impunity. New Delhi has repeatedly been talking about restoration of peace here but with the incidents like the one that […]
It’s unfortunate
In the developed West, if you are driving a car and you hear a siren of an ambulance or a police car, you simply pull up to the side to make way for it. The rule-book says you can’t just slow down but you have to stop; and people obey this rule so religiously that […]
