Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has criticized the Congress party's objections to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), echoing the BJP's stance that questioning the machines' integrity is only acceptable when losing elections. Abdullah argues that parties should not contest elections if they don't trust the voting process. His comments highlight the growing friction between the National Conference and the Congress, their recent alliance partners in Jammu and Kashmir.
'India enjoys conventional superiority, but nuclear deterrence imposes clear boundaries.'
'Fears in Washington began to intensify when it was realised that subsequent Pakistani and Indian attacks on major military facilities -- which were significant in terms of geographic scope and intensity -- could rapidly take both sides to where neither actually wanted to go.' 'The US objective was to stop the fighting as soon as possible. Everything else was secondary.'
'It could take the form of sporadic LoC violation through heavy artillery and mortar fire, focusing on border villages where the Hindu Dogra population is predominant.'
'Muslims need to work according to strategy and not fall into the trap of Opposition parties.'
Climate scientists warn that climate change is intensifying heatwaves in India, with the cooling effects of La Nia potentially becoming less effective in a warmer future. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts an early summer with above-normal temperatures and intense heatwave spells, following an unusually dry winter and the warmest February since 1901. Experts emphasize the role of human-caused climate change, along with natural climate drivers like El Nio and La Nia, in shaping weather patterns. While La Nia typically brings cooler temperatures, scientists suggest that under climate change, its ability to mitigate heatwaves may be diminished.
'The Abdullah family is the problem and facilitator of the instability that we are seeing in Kashmir.'
'There's something called deterrence by punishment.' 'That means you hit in a manner calculated to raise costs and consequences for Pakistan, so that the next time it attempts a Pahalgam-like attack, it has to think ten times.'
Referring to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's famous statement, Abdullah said "we can change friends but we cannot change neighbours".
Rushdie, whose latest book Shalimar the Clown is set against the backdrop of Kashmir, said terrorists have brought 'an intolerant Islam into the Kashmir valley'.
'We should give azaadi to Jammu and Ladakh from the domination of Kashmir valley politics,' suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Wani said he also asked Sri Sri to use his influence in finding a solution to Kashmir problem.
India is proposing a new law that would impose a jail term of up to seven years and a fine of Rs 10 lakh on anyone found using a forged passport or visa to enter, stay, or exit the country. The Immigration and Foreigners Bill, 2025, also mandates reporting of foreign visitors by hotels, universities, and hospitals to track overstaying individuals. The bill aims to simplify laws, ease business, and strengthen national security while promoting economic growth and tourism.
'Many of them are mutilated beyond recognition. Every day an encounter takes place.' 'Bastar has been burnt to ash.'
ASJ Chander Jit Singh underscored he would first consider the issue of jurisdiction and whether or not to transfer the case to a special court meant to try lawmakers, considering Rashid was now an MP.
'The BJP has killed public anger. They have killed people's self-respect.'
A leader of Shiv Sena, a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of "compromising" on Hindutva issues and termed BJP's coalition with Peoples Democratic Party in Kashmir as "treason".
In an exclusive telephonic interview with rediff.com from Srinagar, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti accused the governments of Pakistan and India for the present situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
N N Vohra, the first bureaucrat to be appointed as the governor of Jammu and Kashmir in 18 years, told rediff.com that he expected the Centre to formally announce his appointment by Thursday.The government has asked Vohra to hold talks with all the political parties and prepare a comprehensive report on the steps that need to be taken to improve the situation in the troubled state. Vohra will succeed Lieutenant General S K Sinha, whose term expired last week.
The United States will deport 119 Indian nationals who were living in the country illegally. The individuals will arrive in Amritsar, India, on Saturday, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted the need to combat human trafficking. This deportation follows the arrival of a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants earlier this month. Prime Minister Modi and President Donald Trump discussed the issue of illegal immigration during their joint press conference, emphasizing the need to dismantle the "ecosystem" of human trafficking. Modi emphasized India's willingness to take back its citizens residing illegally in the US, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri confirmed that the issue of illegal immigration was raised during the discussions, stressing the need to address the root causes of the problem. India seeks cooperation from the US to dismantle the rackets and ecosystems that facilitate illegal immigration, potentially involving collaboration between law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community changed the very cultural ethos of Kashmir and there has been little turnback despite three decades having gone by since it got triggered by growing fundamentalism fuelled from across the border, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said on Monday.
UK army chief said Kashmir is a "bilateral" dispute between India and Pakistan.
By a coincidence, the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was in India during the annual kite flying festival and he did indeed do some of his own on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. He proffered unsolicited advice that in order to deal with terrorism India must 'solve' the Kashmir problem, says Col Anil Athale (retired)
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said there was a marked improvement in the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Chidambaram made these comments while addressing an All India Editors Conference on Society and Infrastructure in Srinagar.
"This is all about distraction, basic issue is of caste census and participation, in whose hands is the money of the country going. They (BJP) don't want to discuss this issue, they are afraid of it and run away from it," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.
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".
Kashmir is reeling from a heat wave after the valley earlier this week witnessed the second-hottest September day in recorded history, causing hardships to locals and tourists alike.
The Pakistan foreign minister has called for the expansion of the UN peacekeepers' role in Kashmir.
Chairman of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, deliberately chose the national day of Kashmir on Monday to protest against the Centre -- for not including the people of the state in finding out an amicable solution to the Jammu and Kashmir problem by holding talks with Pakistan.
Ahead of counting of votes, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said his party was open to the idea of taking support of Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party to form government in the Union territory.
Contrary to expectations, Union home minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday did not make a direct offer to the separatists for a dialogue, but said the Central government was working to find a unique and acceptable solution to the Jammu and Kashmir problem.
Congratulating Narendra Modi for his party's landslide victory in Lok Sabha polls, Peoples Democratic Party patriarch Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said he was hopeful the new BJP government would take tangible steps in finding a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem.
Opposition parties on Wednesday opposed the 'one nation, one election' proposal by calling it impractical and a 'cheap stunt' by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Will the acquital of S A R Geelani and Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Guru help solve the Kashmir problem?
'Once the violence is contained, the politicians must play their role, but unfortunately that is not happening.'
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is poised to form the first elected government in Jammu and Kashmir, having secured a victory in the assembly elections by securing 49 out of 90 seats on which polls were held for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 five years ago.
Advani, the leader of opposition in Parliament, said although he encouraged the composite dialogue process between India and Pakistan, he believed that other issues, like information and commerce, should precede Kashmir.Although the Kashmir problem would take time to resolve, Advani was optimistic that a day would come when India and Pakistan would form a confederation to solve the issue.He stressed that cross-border terrorism is a serious bone of contention.
Against the backdrop of a diplomatic storm sparked by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's attempt to link the Kashmir problem to terrorism, Britain on Friday said it was for India and Pakistan to resolve the issue through dialogue, and its not for UK to prescribe a solution.
