The election to the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly will be crucial for defining the region’s political future.

The Union Territory government will have powers similar to a municipal authority, but a lot more than that is on the line.

The Pakistani standoff aside, the Indian government must go beyond ensuring only procedural democracy in the Kashmir Valley.

Kashmir’s visible army presence once deterred protestors and mujahideen. Now, it hosts tourists from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan alongside gun-wielding Rashtriya Rifles (RR) personnel.

India’s Afghan problem is bigger than what is made out to be! Not only in terms of the American squeeze on Jammu and Kashmir, or troop-deployment at the Pakistan and China border, there is a lot to watch out for as US troops prepare to leave the landlocked country

The speed at which Davinder Singh’s case was handed over to the NIA should surprise many. What was the purpose of this transfer when the local police, R&AW and IB, were looking into the case? The move raises several uncanny questions.

The arrest of a top cop in Kashmir in a terror plot along with terrorists opens a can of worms which can be traced to the hanging of Afzal Guru who was hanged to appease ‘the collective conscience of the nation’.

It is a typically predictable Catch-22 scenario, and even the most muscular gamblers might have actually botched it up very, very, badly.

These are dark times not just for those who are living in an unprecedented lockdown, but also for those whose feel disenfranchised and demonised in the land of Gandhi and Nehru for their beliefs and faith in Indian democracy, as enshrined in the values of the Indian freedom movement.

Apparently, Nehru in his heart of hearts was not happy at having dismissed and then detained Shaikh Abdullah.