'If democracy does not exist, if there are no political spaces, there is no media, there is no civil society, what do we rejoice?'
'The Abdullah family is the problem and facilitator of the instability that we are seeing in Kashmir.'
The Union home minister said he firmly believed that Article 370 that gave the special status to Jammu and Kashmir should be removed as it was not beneficial to the country.
The former chief minister urged the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh not to be disheartened or lose hope over the apex court's decision.
For the last four years since abrogation of Article 370, Kashmir-based political parties have been struggling to forge an alternate narrative to the one forcibly snatched from them. The BJP is bound to go hammer and tongs at them now that their armoury is reinforced with the Supreme Court judgment, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday mocked Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray for "handing over the remote control" of the party to the Congress as he took poll battle to Mumbai with less than a week left for voting in Maharashtra.
The BJP celebrated the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
'PM Modi would have swept the elections in Kashmir after notebandi but then he scrapped Article 370 so all his good work went down the drain.'
'We put the seed of BJP's ideology in Jammu, watered it, nurtured it for four decades and when it was time to reap the fruits of those efforts, the fruits are being sold out to the very same people who worked hard to uproot this tree.' 'Shockingly, our own people are letting this happen and nobody from Delhi bothers to even listen to us.'
BJP's stated position is that Article 370 should be scrapped for total integration of J&K with India.
The Akhil Bhartiya Gau Sewa Foundation has organised an ambitious 180-day journey to raise awareness about cow protection across India, including in Jammu and Kashmir.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, the first elected government in the Union Territory since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated.
At least three MLAs were marshalled out on the directions of Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather but the brawl ensued due to resistance put up by the opposition members.
Bookstore owners were cautioned against keeping or distributing the books. Police personnel briefed the bookstore owners about the legal consequences of violating the ban.
The Modi government finally dropped its big Kashmir bomb on Monday, with Home Minister Amit Shah moving to revoke two key constitutional provisions -- Article 370 and Article 35(A) -- that give Jammu and Kashmir a host of special rights. With the situation now on a knife's edge, here is what the momentous decision would mean for Jammu and Kashmir and for the country in general.
Ghulam Nabi Azad remarked that the figures are not high enough to know whether the people are happy or angry with the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, Mehbooba Mufti said it is a message that the people have not accepted the Centre's decisions.
US noted that India has described the actions in J&K as "strictly an internal matter".
Earlier this month, a controversy had erupted over the reduction of syllabus by the Central Board of Secondary Education due to the COVID-19 situation, with the Opposition alleging that chapters on India's democracy and plurality are being "dropped" to propagate a particular ideology.
Mixing humour with political resolve, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday used the flagging-off ceremony of the first train to Kashmir by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Katra to subtly but clearly articulate his government's demand for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
'Often people outside paint a wrong picture of us of Kashmiris. We are not like that. We are cool and bindaas,' said the lady, a teacher, caressing my cheeks in the pressing crowds.
Mehbooba said Article 370 was a bridge between the Union and the state.
"As per the information provided by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, two persons from outside Jammu and Kashmir have purchased two properties in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir since August, 2019," he said.
Notwithstanding protests by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, he said the first session of the newly elected Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is "short in duration but historic in terms of agenda".
National Conference Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, along with Peoples Democratic Party leaders Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, Sheikh Khursheed and others, led a peaceful protest on Monday, December 23, 2024, outside Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's residence in Srinagar.
Defending the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed an "unprecedented" era of peace, progress and prosperity, with street violence, orchestrated by terrorists and secessionist networks, becoming "a thing of the past."
From the beginning of next month, the bench will commence hearing to examine the constitutional validity of the scrapping of the article's provisions and the subsequent presidential orders on it, an official source said.
Trinamool Congress described it as "Black Monday" and a dark day for the country's constitution, the idea of India, and the Rajya Sabha
'My mother feels it will be tough and emotional for her to enter an assembly which has essentially been reduced to a municipality now.' 'My opinion is that even if it is a municipality one cannot cede that space to the BJP.'
No PM ever dared to take the decision. It was Modi with his 56-inch chest who made the move, said Shah.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a significant political development, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah announced on Thursday that an alliance with the Congress was finalised for all 90 assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, which is going for its maiden assembly polls after being reorganised into a Union Territory.
According to Hindu scriptures, Ganga Dussehra marks the day the holy river Ganga descended to Earth from Lord Shiva's locks, moved by King Bhagirath's penance. The day is considered highly auspicious and symbolises virtue, penance, and the collective well-being of humanity.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the 'unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir after prominent leaders from ruling and opposition parties were not allowed to leave their houses to prevent them from visiting the graveyard of 1931 martyrs in Srinagar.
The Opposition seems to be speaking on lines of the neighbouring country on Article 370, he said.
'Those who call for war from far-off places should realise the repercussions it has on the people who are actually affected.'
Congress leader Salman Khurshid, who is a part of India's diplomatic mission abroad, on Monday said it is 'distressing' that people back home are calculating political allegiances and asked if it is 'so difficult to be patriotic'.
February will see only mid to decent budgeted films arriving.
Shah said the present Lok Sabha elections are about "choosing between corrupt leaders of INDI alliance and honest politician Narendra Modi, who despite being Chief Minister and then Prime Minister never had an allegation of single paisa against him."
Addressing the army personnel on the occasion of Army Day, Naravane reiterated that India has zero-tolerance against terrorism. "Abrogation of Article 370 is a historic step which will connect Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country. The decision has adversely affected the plans of western neighbour and its proxies. We have zero-tolerance against terrorism. We have many options to give a reply to terrorists and will not hesitate to use them," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the passage of bills as a "momentous occasion" in parliamentary democracy and said a new dawn awaits the people there as they are now free from the "shackles" of vested interest groups.
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