Dead-end!
As has always been the case in the past, this time too shutting down businesses and remaining away from offices would yield nothing worthwhile. In fact history of past nearly three decades of Kashmir’s recent history are replete with the evidence that this tactic of calling and observing shutdowns and strikes has done precious little […]
Reorientation needed
It is really unfortunate that nothing really is being done to change the ugly situation in Kashmir. While external scape-goating may help the State and the Central governments to shift blame on Pakistan, but fact of the matter is that not everything could be blamed on the external machinations. Internally there is a lot that […]
Beyond abstract symbolism
Any serious commentary on the politics of Kashmir tends to be disdainful of the political elite; and more than their ‘person’, of their politicizing the mundane for selfish ends. There are reasons for it. At a place where even the bare essentials of life are packaged and passed on as favours to the ordinary have-nots, […]
‘Hollow rhetorical pyrotechnics’
When Barack Obama first ran for office in 1995, he argued that politicians should not see voters “as mere recipients or beneficiaries”. He urged the politicians and other leaders, “to take the next step and to see voters, residents or citizens as producers of change.” Obviously in saying so, Obama was underlining the importance of […]
Think better ways of protest
In the midst of the gassing and violence by the Chicago Police and National Guard during the 1968 Democratic Convention, many students found themselves at the receiving end of the police violence. And when they narrated their experiences to one of the great organizational gurus of the time, they hurled choicest abuses and invectives at […]
Planning matters
In 1961, diamond-rich Botswana and Sierra Leone had approximately the same per capita income of about US$1,070, when both these countries in Africa adopted and experienced extremely different paths of economic development. While diamonds caused an economic miracle in Botswana, the same diamonds led to a total state collapse in Sierra Leone. In Botswana the […]
Ending stalemate
History is a great teacher, a huge repository of events and happenings of past that are an important source of knowledge and wisdom. The trick to learn from the history lies in reading and interpreting it so as to be able to draw something from it, something which makes sense with at least identical situations […]
Kashmir calls for restraint
What happened on Sunday in south Kashmir is very scary. Scary not only because twenty lives were lost to the unbridled violence and hundreds of others were injured, but more because there is an unfortunate tendency of “celebrating” these deaths as a “success”. People in the security establishment as well as certain elements in the […]
Medical Mafia
Kashmir is really a gold mine, and everybody is busy milking the society and its systems to the best possible advantage and that too without any hassles. Although like elsewhere laws are here as well, but unlike anywhere else, nobody bothers to heed these laws as there is no mechanism for their implementation as well. […]
Rhetorical garbage!
Many of the conflicts dotting the world’s political landscape, particularly the ‘internationalized internal conflicts’ are seen as violent manifestations of the political grievances of the populations against the state or the ruling elites. But they are also about the economics. Thanks to the globalization, and the pressures it has been and is putting on the […]
