Author: Kashmir Newsline

Opposition party reports attacks, torn nomination papers and arrests across 10 locations; alleges police inaction and intimidation by ruling TDP-led coalition VIJAYAWADA, October 21, 2026 — The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) has alleged widespread violence and intimidation against its candidates during nominations for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs) and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) across Andhra Pradesh, reporting attacks on party leaders, the destruction of nomination papers and the detention of senior functionaries. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the opposition party accused cadres of the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and its coalition partners of obstructing candidates from filing…

Government offices must make room for dissent, dialogue and accountability, not abuse and threats. Khadija Khan  When authority is used to belittle a colleague rather than facilitate public service, it raises a fundamental question: is power a responsibility to lead or a privilege to command? The recent row in Jammu and Kashmir involving IAS officer Kumar Rajeev Ranjan and JKAS officer Beenish Wani has once again brought this issue to light. Media reports from October 15 and 16, 2026, state that a review meeting on Mission YUVA, a government programme designed to empower young people, came to a standstill…

The sport has a billion fans in the country, yet the heartbreak is endless and the system in a perpetual crisis.  Naume Basu If you ask almost any teenager in India who watches football, they will tell you the same thing. We spend our late nights watching the English Premier League or Champions League, supporting clubs like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Manchester City, but deep down, all we want is to see our national team in the blue jersey at the FIFA World Cup. With a population of over 1.4 billion, India cannot possibly lack talent or passion for…

In a democracy, it’s the people who have to have the final say. No government has a right to thrust its whims and fancies on them.  Shome Basu As a child growing up in Calcutta, I would watch the vernacular film telecast on Doordarshan every Saturday. One film, Biyallish, left a lasting impression. It portrayed Major Trivedi, an Indian officer played by Bikash Ray, serving the British government in Midnapore and responsible for ordering the police to fire on Matangini Hazra during the Quit India Movement of 1942. In the final scene, Trivedi orders the police to fire at a…

A greeting is, after all, meant to convey goodwill. It should not become a reason to question someone’s integrity, identity or right to belong. By Khadijah Khan Assalamu Alaikum, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Vanakkam! These are among the greetings with which a typical Indian conversation—or simply an exchange of pleasantries—begins. Greetings are, after all, expressions of goodwill, until one of them becomes anathema to certain people simply because it is associated with a particular community. The latest imbroglio around IPS officer Bushra Bano, following the viral video in which she greets people with “Assalamu Alaikum”, is a case in point.…

Chennai, Oct 6: Tamil Nadu Muslim political leaders Prof. M. H. Jawahirullah, MLA and president of Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK), and M. Thamimun Ansari, president of Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi (MJK), have expressed solidarity with Aligarh Muslim University students demanding the restoration of Students’ Union elections. Their support comes as postgraduate student Yasir Fahad, who has been on hunger strike since September 21, seeks restoration of the Students’ Union, appointment of an election authority and announcement of an election date. The last AMU Students’ Union elections were held in 2018-19. Jawahirullah termed the restoration of the elected union a “legitimate democratic…

Until structural questions and international boundary disputes are conclusively resolved, Ladakh remains a fragile, breathtaking, and deeply contested frontier. Shome Basu Seven years after the abrogation of Articles370 and 35–A, which dismantled the semi-autonomous architecture of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two distinct Union Territories, the geopolitical fault lines across the northern frontier remain raw. What New Delhi envisioned as a definitive masterstroke for integration has instead settled into a complex, tense equilibrium. From the high-altitude, windswept plateaus of Ladakh to the densely militarized alleys of the Kashmir Valley and the political corridors of…

As the Mizo people look toward a modern future, their message to Delhi remains clear: integration cannot merely be military or administrative—it must be rooted in deep, empathetic listening. Shome Basu From the window of a propeller aircraft descending through low-hanging clouds into Aizawl, Mizoram presents itself as an endless ocean of mist-shrouded green hills. Yet beneath the serene beauty of India’s eastern frontier lies a complex tapestry of historical trauma, geopolitical fragility, and an unyielding quest for dignity. For outsiders arriving via the mandatory Inner Line Permit (ILP)—a regulatory safeguard tracing its roots back over a century—the transition into…

Zhang Xiaoyu The 18th BRICS summit will open in New Delhi on September 12 to 13. India holds the rotating chairmanship this year under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” The gathering comes as BRICS marks two decades since its members first sat down as a political grouping. It also comes at a moment when China-India relations have regained positive momentum. A successful summit will show whether the two largest developing countries can turn high-level consensus into practical cooperation that serves the Global South. In 2001, the acronym BRIC was coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill…

BRI’s transformative potential extends beyond economic development. It has the power to reshape global trade routes and reduce dependence on US-led frameworks including international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF.   Priyanka Garodia China’s quest to enhance its power on a global scale has been a national priority in recent times. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a global development project that stands as a testimony to its ambitiousness across Asia, Europe, and Africa. Aimed at enhancing connectivity and trade through investments in energy, transportation and communication, the BRI has allowed China to be seen as a…