Jammu’s aspirations vs. Kashmir’s hegemony

On October 13, the Union Cabinet cleared the establishment of an Indian Institute of Management in Jammu as part of the Prime Minister’s development package for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre had earlier announced that an Indian Institute of Technology and an All India Institutes of Medical Sciences would also be set up in Jammu. The…

A House, But No Home in Kashmir

Two weeks ago, on a hot summer day, I visited Jagti along with my father. Jagti is a village near Nagrota town in Jammu province, which straddles the national highway connecting Jammu and Srinagar. At present, Jagti gives shelter to around 4000 families; seeing the clustered structures, I couldn’t fathom how they must live. Families…

Where’s the promised land for Kashmiri Pandits?

For the past 26 years, every political party has played with the issue of resettling Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir for their own interests. And every time, once the votes have been counted, the issue goes into cold storage. Indian National Congress (INC), National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are especially guilty of this…

Interview with Deutsche Welle

Indian security forces battled for a third day Monday, February 22, amid heavy gunfire to clear militants who stormed a government building in the disputed Kashmir region. The attack began when militants shot at a bus carrying police reservists near Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital, before breaking into a training institute. Three Indian army commandos, two…