Like his predecessor Syed Ali Geelani, Masarat Alam Bhat (51) is seen as pro-Pakistan. He has been under preventive detention for 11 years. In a statement issued to the media, the Hurriyat Conference said the people of Jammu and Kashmir look up to his leadership with great expectations.
'You fight with a person when he is alive. But when he dies he becomes a body. That body deserves respect,' Mehbooba Mufti said.
After Geelani’s death, videos surfaced showing Syed Ali Shah Geelani's body wrapped in a Pakistani flag.
For the past 30 years, Geelani had remained the pivot of Kashmiri separatism. Geelani was known for giving prolonged strike calls and one word from him brought Kashmir to a pause.
The probe into the case suggested that the money collected from the parents of the aspiring or potential students was used, at least partly, to support and fund terrorism and separatism in different ways.
He would take his colour, brushes and canvas outside to paint and talk with his love. He would stand close to the window and paint, keeping an eye on his muse.
They say the violin mimics the human sound. In his case, it was that of love, of longing. He didn’t know any other way of loving.
Younger people do not have much progressive beliefs; a 2017 survey found that one-third of young people opposed inter-caste marriage.
The pandemic has made it clear that virtual learning is here to stay. In the West, the big question is whether it will dilute the quality of the college experience and education. In India, which grapples with digital divide, the question remains whether this will reach most people at all.
Even after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, many 'informed' individuals in India continue to deny the virus with unscientific claims and unfounded data. The latest? Omicron will end the pandemic.
Across Asia there are deeply entrenched obstacles to a mode of higher education that is liberal in multiple senses – disciplinary and epistemological but also social and political.
The two incidents in the recent past, one in Mon district of Nagaland and the other at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, undermined the core principles democracy and federalism.