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.
Within a year’s time, Shah Faesal -- once touted as a role model for the youth of Kashmir -- has taken a complete U-turn on his stance on Kashmir politics. It takes years, sometimes decades, to realise the dreams in Kashmir politics.
The idea -- or the promise -- of Naya Kashmir is not new to Kashmiris. The first promise was made in 1940s, then all the successive governments -- from Delhi to Srinagar -- repeated it time and again. Now a year after abrogation of Article 370, the promise echoes again from Delhi to Lal Chowk.
Kashmiris have lived through the worst times. All they must do is to adhere to this lockdown and its advisory as this is the only lockdown that is for life, for securing children, adults and old people from the dreaded disease, writes Naseer Ganai.
The government has taken a leaf out of its Kashmir book to try and end protests. It has closed down the internet and it has unleashed the police against peaceful protestors.
'Asked about the number of people arrested or detained since August 5, the government spokesperson would say: because of the changing and dynamic situation, the numbers could not be given.'
The history will be kind to the fourth estate of Kashmir. It won’t say that when we were asked to bend we prostrated. Instead, it will say that when they were asked to bend, they turned to Kafka.
The edit pages are published without editorials. And, if editorials appear, they do not talk about Kashmir or India or Pakistan, but about elections in Israel and Cambodia!
Since it is Kashmir, anything that happens here doesn’t stay here. The parties involved have even brought India and Pakistan into it, perhaps on the expected lines.
Engineer Rashid who became an independent MLA from Kupwara district in 2008, could be a worrying factor for all three leading political parties in the Kashmir valley.
The government is also keen to show that peace has returned to the valley. That is why the Governor visited the tulip garden on Saturday. Now with no one on the roads except the forces, it looked so normal...
There is a perception in Kashmir that the state was denied fair elections from 1953 till 1977. It is widely believed that in 1977, under PM Morarji Desai, a truly fair election was held in the State leading to the landslide victory of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah.
