The decision of the UPA government to surreptitiously hang Afzal Guru, in order to blunt the divisive Hindutva offensive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will portray India as hypocritical and richly deserving of the sneers this act is bound to evoke in the neighbourhood. The hanging has effectively hollowed out New Delhi's claims of high morality in its dealings with countries which comprise the troubled arc of South Asia.

Forget whether or not Afzal Guru was guilty of facilitating...

The case of gang rape in Indian capital has remained a focus of almost all the print and electronic media in the country, followed by the violent and angry protests at India Gate, in the heart of New Delhi. Not only the residents of Delhi, but also the whole India has condemned this heinous crime. Living their own life of peace, far from turbulent Kashmir, the young generation of the city has rarely witnessed such protests, yet it arose in anger to protest against this brutal incident. People...

The gruesome gang rape that happened recently in capital city New Delhi of India has knocked off the imagination of Indian Nation. The college going ‘girl’ was gang raped in a private bus. Six men, reportedly in a drunken state, are involved in the crime. The barbarity of the incident of shoving iron rod in the private organs of the girl has sent jitters down the spine of conscious young people in the country. This news perturbed me quite irately. I went on to pour condemnation messages...

In many's looks,
the false heart's history is writ in moods,
and frowns, and wrinkles strange

~Sonnet 93, William Shakespeare
English playwright and poet (1564-1616)

Sonnet 93 is one of Shakespeare's famed sonnets addressed to a mysterious fair youth. Our local fair youth brigade -- read Messrs Omar and dad Farooq Abdullah – are currently blushing at the 93 percent polling recorded in the state for the four Legislative Council (LC) seats held under the rural local bodies’ quota. Despite...

The winter is coming, like they say in the massively popular fantasy television series Game of Thrones. It is November, and winter is coming to keep its date with the valley. Soon it will be cold as a witch’s tit in Srinagar and elsewhere and everyone will be wearing those god awful Chinese ear muffs, especially brothers from the transport fraternity. One can imagine mini-bus conductors hanging precariously low on the edge of their respective vehicle doors, their aquiline noses red with the...

Kashmir is very rich in nature and wildlife. Its animals are wild, ranging from tiger to goat. Donkeys and asses can also be found here. For a time being donkey is considered the national animal, while a debate goes on whether to keep tiger or goat as national animal or not (they being very sacred to this place). Though they differ a lot from each other but, both have dogs to their assistance. Dogs bite, tigers and goats eat. Their food habits vary. Tigers eat randomly whoever comes in their...

Casteism in the valley of Kashmir was till some years ago both an attribute and a peculiarity which the elite societal structures practiced and enjoyed. To be more precise one may say that it was practiced by the Syed clan using the so called “Syedism” card, and by the administrative class in terms of their socio-official positioning. So intertwined were the relations of caste and class involved in this whole play that a common person could not easily differentiate that whether it was...

One of the prominent youth Muslims leader of Kargil sent Kashmir Dispatch an open letter addressed to the chief minister Omar Abdullah over the communal clashes that have gripped Zanskar since past few months. Here is the letter:

Esteemed Sir!

 

With due regard I would like to submit the following lines before your goodself :-

1. That, your goodself will be aware of the fact that few Buddhist families in Zanskar, Kargil converted to Islam with their own free will and onset without any...