News views.

A few fast changing situations and the bit of news that kept many of us occupied, over the past couple of days. Let's go through them without much ado.

The Kashmir Related Activity

There seems a great variance in what certain leaders are saying to the cameras and what was said to them at the Prime Minister's meeting on J&K. Firstly, not one leader brought up the issue of 370 or 35A despite what they're claiming. They have all accepted this as fait accompli. Secondly, they were told that the sequence of events will be as follows : Delimitation, Elections, Good Behaviour, Statehood. This is important because the delimitation will ensure that the balance of seats between Jammu and Kashmir divisions will be as per their respective demography. More importantly, the relevant sections of the constitution with regards to reservations - specifically for SC/ST/OBC (such as 'bakarwals' etc) will be implemented in full.

However, this alone will not lead to statehood. Statehood while sequential, will depend entirely on how parties behave and support the deconfliction of the economy - mind you both NC & PDP derive much of their income from the conflict and are invested in it.

Essentially, the way it was described to me was a perfect balancing act between carrots and sticks. Their ability to monetise the conflict has been destroyed and now carrots are being dangled for them to create more palatable  and legal avenues of fund raising to run their parties and powerbases. No clear deadline was given for when statehood - essentially a dilemma has been created for them - do they bankrupt themselves sticking to the past or do they lose their voter base by embracing the new deconflicted avenues of money making? The latter means they will start generating money but they'd still have to cut off old corrupt fogeys who have no avenues of changing tack. Quite smart - especially given no specific assurances were given but they have to keep performing like circus monkeys in the hope that something good May come their way. In short, none of these jokers are actually being "accommodated" - they're being dangled goodies to become domesticated pets or become irrelevant and live in penury.

It was made clear that these parties will have to EARN trust - given their past actions they're not getting a free lunch - the onus is ENTIRELY on them to mend their ways - it's no longer about what they want from Delhi but rather what Delhi wants from them.

Tweet from Abhijit Iyer.

My take

Finally, a roadmap to a clear Kashmir policy!

The Twitter's Highhandedness

Today, India's IT Minister, Ravishankar Prasad's Twitter handle was switched off for an hour because it thought that he'd infringed upon US policies! Actually, the minister should get off Twitter.

My take

The Twitter needs to be put in its place. There should be zero-tolerance for its intransigence to follow Indian IT Rules.

 

Tailpiece.

Got up at our usual time, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10. Earlier, saw Subi off around a half past 8 and learning from yesterday's difficulty, a simple lunch was packed for him by Lekha and the maid.

A quiet day. Participated in a webinar from 1830 - 1930 hrs regarding NDLI clubs. Very interesting!