Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who set off a national debate when he walked the Bharat Jodo Yatra in a T-shirt in north India's cold winter, donned a pheran to ward off Kashmir's bone-freezing chill on Monday.
The sectarian killings by hit-and-run groups have revived and sharpened communal fears among the victims while the Poonch encounter reveals how deep the terrorists have dug in without getting noticed in the porous border area, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
In the Kashmir Valley, we need to begin to make a distinction between an insurgent who fights the security forces and a terrorist who murders unarmed civilians, suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The Congress will launch a two-month door-to-door campaign across India from next week to spread Rahul Gandhi's message among the masses, senior leader Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.
But why is everyone getting so het up over what, after all, is a mere film? If you don't like it, don't watch it. Why create a public spectacle over it? asks Virendra Kapoor.
From the many large communal riots across decades to the six-hour mass cull of Muslims in Nellie, 1983; Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere, 1984; Kashmiri Pandits, 1990; selective massacres of Hindus in Punjab, 1983-93; and Gujarat, 2002, we have failed to bring perpetrators of our biggest tragedies to account, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'The government is plucking leaves and not destroying the plant.'
Kumar, a resident of Bhagwan village in Hanumangarh, worked as a manger with Ellaqui Dehati Bank at Areh Mohanpora branch in the south Kashmir district.
Many said that scrapping of Article 370, which gave special status to the state, could lead to change in its Muslim-majority identity.
'We need to have a prosperous J-K, where all communities must prosper including Dogras, Gujjars, Sikhs, Muslims and Pandits.' 'Prosperity is the first signal of peace.'
V Balachandran, former special secretary, cabinet secretariat, Government of India and a member of Ram Pradhan Committee on 26/11, talks to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa on how Narendra Modi, if comes to power on Friday, should tackle terror.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who made a rare visit this week to the restive Xinjiang region which borders Ladakh, met the troops and officers stationed there and praised their "outstanding contributions" to the border defence and stabilisation of the volatile province.
Here are glimpses of the celebrations!
Ahead of a crucial meeting on Jammu and Kashmir, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is believed to have discussed the security situation in the Union territory which has witnessed a spate of targeted killings since May 12.
'Hatred increases with every killing.' 'It sets one family against another.' 'The sooner it is stopped, the better.'
If Mr Modi is to be blamed for the post-Godhra riots, he should also be given credit for maintaining peace after the Akshardham and Ahmedabad terror attacks. The BBC will never tell you that, points out Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The United States has asserted that it stands with India against Chinese aggression as several lawmakers slammed China for choosing a People's Liberation Army soldier.
What the election demonstrated is that the BJP has a stranglehold on most of the Hindu votes in the Union territory, observes David Devadas.
Two government school teachers, including a woman, were shot dead by terrorists in Eidgah area of Srinagar amid increasing attacks on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
'Earlier we had been told we were the crown of India.'
Replying to a discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, he also slammed some Opposition members for their claim that the proposed law negates the hopes of the region getting back its erstwhile statehood.
A Central Bureau of Investigation court in Jammu has issued summons to Dr Rubaiya Sayeed, the late Union home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's daughter, to appear before it on July 15, 2022 in a case related to her abduction in December 1989.
A lot of the factors towards which the government has pointed to justify its moves on Jammu and Kashmir are in fact valid. Only, most of them have little to do with Article 370, says David Devadas.
'It is time to not merely assert that Kashmir is an internal problem, but begin to act on it,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party has won 23 seats while the Pakistan Peoples Party was second with eight seats and the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz secured just six seats, the state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
The third-highest category of security in the country has been granted to Agnihotri because of the film-maker's increased threat perception after the The Kashmir Files release.
Giving economic aid to Kashmir is like giving TB medicine to a patient suffering from cancer and expecting it to work, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Rubaiya Sayeed, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's daughter, appeared before a special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Friday in a case related to her 1989 abduction and identified JKLF chief Yasin Malik and three others as her abductors, officials said.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The North East is a sizeable success story for the Modi government politically and for the BJP electorally. It will be an unpleasant surprise if they choose to blow it, bowing to their basic, polarising instinct at any point, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Our fight is against his political masters, the BJP and Devendra Fadnavis.'
Top Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JuH) on Thursday passed a resolution stating that Kashmir is an 'integral part' of the country and said the welfare of the people in the valley lies in their integration with India.
Replying to a debate on Motion of Thanks to the President's Address in Lok Sabha, Modi also attacked the Congress for its politics in the last seven decades, saying the party's politics of last 70 years has been such that no Congress leader can be self-sufficient.
The move by Sharad Yadav (74), who had been keeping low after battling health issues for months, is seen as an effort to rehabilitate his colleagues and other associates as his LJD could never become a serious force after its launch following his separation with Janata Dal-United leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
'In enacting the citizenship law, the BJP's focus has been so much on consolidating its Hindu vote bank all over the country to divert attention from the economic downturn that the party forgot that there are Hindus and Hindus and that one group of Hindus may not always be warmly embraced by another,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
'First they will say Kashmiris are not good enough to be Indians, then it will be Muslims are not good enough to be Indians, then they will start a conflict within Hindus that Dalits are not Indians'
'In one instance of the Pakistani army's violation of the Ceasefire, I ordered a far tougher response designed to deter the enemy.' 'I warned that 'unexpected damage' to their forces will be inflicted if they continued with such ceasefire violations.' A fascinating excerpt from Lieutenant General K Himalay Singh's Making of a General: A Himalayan Echo.
The Sikhs, especially in Punjab, are already angry and frustrated, cautions Shekhar Gupta.
The days of a thousand cuts are over. These mini wars will remain under the threshold of undeniable war, but will escalate closer to that threshold when their big brother pushes in. Chinese aggression has changed the matrix, the strategies, and surely the objectives too, warns David Devadas.
