Naseer A Ganai is a Srinagar based journalist, cross-platform reporter and storyteller. He reports on Kashmir, politics, human rights and India Pakistan border conflict.
With the Assembly elections likely to be held along with the parliamentary polls, how Omar deals with the Congress and independent leaders will be keenly watched.
Most of the mainstream Kashmiri politicians think they would be remembered for what they presume are good deeds. For them, the rest is ancient history, not worth remembering.
‘Mazhar’ in Kashmiri means an ‘epidemic’ and in Arabic, Persian and Urdu, it means an ‘expression’. The former bureaucrat, who had remained principal secretary to Farooq Abdullah during the latter’s tenure as Chief Minister, was sort of an epidemic those days.
Rather than talking about Kashmiri doctors and multi-storey houses in the state, had the Governor concentrated on the fax machine at the Raj Bhavan, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s dissolution would not have made headlines in international media.
It all started after the newly elected Mayor Junaid Mattu in a press conference made a controversial comment on wetlands, triggering outrage in Srinagar. Basant Rath also put in his two cents, presumably, calling the Mayor 'Cabbage'.
Why is it that playing cricket, conducting football tournaments or smiling and laughing by Kashmiris is linked to signs of normalcy and ultimate solution of Kashmir?
The protagonists of the AFSPA would argue that the Army’s internal mechanism is enough to deal with such issues. But no one in Kashmir takes it seriously as previous cases like the Patheribal fake encounter case of 2000 shows
Some wrote that “Kashmiri Muslims have angered Satisar” and “Satisar finally realised that it is enough” and drowned all Kashmiris living in the Valley. It is said Kashmir was once a huge water body called Satisar.
Many in J&K fear that the state could become another Xingjian. The petitions against the Article 35A, which debars Indians from outside J&K from purchasing land and getting state government jobs in the state, are seen more as political in nature than legal.
Mehbooba and Omar’s allegations tantamount to accusing the rebel MLAs of being agents of New Delhi in Srinagar. And this is seen as a slur in Kashmir. In short, the worst abuse one can face.
Nothing wrong in J&K having a Hindu CM; only that the political parties generally avoid the idea in view of the state’s demography. Right now, every MLA in the assembly put in suspended animation seems eyeing the top Cabinet post.