FJ Kashmir

inam ul rehman  We are a strange race in Kashmir . Constructing houses is our first priority. But we design our roofs, and ramps for the vehicles in such a way that we make sure that rainwater, snow should fall on the road because road belongs to the public. We eat number of things then dump their wrappers on the road. We are so proud of it that in the morning, instead of doing walk, we take the garbage of our houses and throw it on the roadside and then swagger as if we have conquered the Mt Everest . We don’t care because the road belongs to the public. Whatever is public it is the responsibility of the government to fix it. Isn’t it how we think?    So goes our argument. Because over the years we have learnt that only two persons are responsible for all the mess that we are in: God, and government.   The snow that accumulates during winters in our backyards we push that out on the roads. All our neighbours, shopkeepers compete in this. In civilised nations people...

  Every year it pockets more than Rs 50 lakh , but does not answer where it spends it!   inam ul rehman    Many of you must have seen Bollywood movies where gangsters , policemen demand “ hafta ”. It is a “protection” money that every businessman from a billionaire to roadside vendor has to pay for smooth functioning of his/her business. This  “hafta”  money is never accountable to the people, and is demanded according to whims of the gang leader.    The University of Kashmir has a few employees’ unions . One of them, and the largest, is the Kashmir University ministerial staff association , known as KUMSA . Now, don’t ask me why the word “ministerial” is put here. I became a permanent employee (permanence has a great value in government service) 6 years ago, but came to know recently that a sum of Rs 255, is deducted every month from the salaries of all non-teaching employees, including me. And this is done without our consent. Although the pl...

  Book: Kashmir : Rage and Reason Author: Gowhar Geelani Publisher: Rupa Publication Pages: 288   inam ul rehman The “Rage and Reason”, Gowhar Geelani, believes is because of the Indian state policies toward Kashmir ! Paradoxically he cites an example of a mechanical engineer, Maseehullah , working in Jalandar Punjab , joining militant ranks. It was Maseehullah’s study of Islam that prompted him to join the call of, what he believed, jihad.    The author here, like a skilled politician, spins the narrative, and writes that the protest of 2008 against the grant of land to the Amarnath shrine board made many to think that it was an attempt to change the demography, and it was this event which forced Maseehullah! Although the latter’s father clearly states that it was Islam which made him to pick the gun against the state. Even his father supports that the land belongs to Allah, and His laws should govern people here.    In fact, throughout the book author ne...

inam ul Rehman   It has been 30 years since the Kashmiris picked up gun against the Indian system . If someone says nothing has changed then he must be put into a mental asylum. What hasn’t changed is that the Kashmiris fight to redraw the boundary continues.   So, what has the Kashmiri leadership, pro-resistance intellectuals learned in the past 30 years about the Indian state? Apparently, nothing. From trying to physically evict India from Kashmir, the Kashmiri leadership, and pro-resistance intellectuals are now trying to shame the Indian state into submission! No state in the world can be shamed into submission, especially when it comes to secession .   Sadly, there has been no concerted effort to understand the Indian state. No Tehreeki intellectual writes on the Indian state. How does it work? What galvanises it?what riles it?what holds it together?what are its underbellies?what makes it to fear?what will make India to give up its claim on Kashmir? What keeps it u...

Reneging Article 370  inam ul rehman Unlike match fixing where the outcome of the match is decided, and needs most influential players to be part of it, spot fixing is betting about some parts of the game without the support of influential players and does not necessarily impact the outcome.    When the US Department of State declared chief of the United Jihad Council , Syed Salahuddin , as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on June 26, 2017, no one in Kashmir asked what interest the USA has in it. It was in keeping with the tradition of “we know it is India’s conspiracy”. Salahudidn is neither an ideologue nor a fighter, never attacked or threatened American interests, and believes in democracy. By declaring him as its enemy wasn’t the USA getting directly involved in the Kashmir dispute? It means that India has to accept Kashmir as an international dispute because the US bracketed Salahuddin among its enemy, which also ticks the vital column which the P...