BetweenTheLines

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook I n the second year of my decade-long stint with the Times of India, I got what I then thought was my first big break — covering the 2008 Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. My mentor late Ranjan Roy agreed to depute me for the coverage at the request of Rashmee Roshan Lall, who was then the paper's weekend editor. I was at the top of my game thanks to Ranjan and Rashmee's support and encouragement at the beginning of the best phase of my professional life. I could not wait and hopped on to a bus as soon as I arrived in Srinagar to Pattan near Srinagar to meet Member Of Parliament Abdul Rashid Shaheen, who was contesting the elections on a National Conference (NC) ticket. Shaheen, who had seen better days in politics, appeared downcast. He was in his living room addressing half-a-dozen supporters when I walked in. Shaheen spoke about NC's heyday when iconic Sheikh Abdullah, the NC founder, held sway over the Kashmiris. Also Read

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook A bdul Kadir Khanzada represented Karachi’s Orangi Town in Pakistan's parliament when Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, visited his country in 2012. He wanted to invite the visiting leader to his constituency given the composition of the area, where a bulk of the voters have roots in Bihar. Khanzada told me violence uprooted his family from Alwar in Rajasthan at the time of partition in 1947 when I called him for a Times of India piece on Kumar's visit. But since 70 per cent of his constituents were of Bihari origin, he was keen on inviting Kumar. Khanzada emphasised his Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which represents Pakistan's Urdu-speaking people, has always supported peace with India and hoped Kumar’s visit would help the process.  Also Read | How Kinship Bonds Impact Pakistan's Electoral Politics Kumar visited the archaeological site of Mohenjo-Daro, a temple, and addressed a Hindu pan

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook P akistan's first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) has understandably hit the headlines in India. As The Indian Express pointed out, India has been mentioned more than any other nation—at least 16 times—in the 62-page document. Prepared after what has been described as a seven-year strategic thought, the NSP was adopted in late December. It cites a policy of peace at home and abroad and says Islamabad wishes to improve its relationship with New Delhi even as it acknowledges the rise of Hindutva-driven politics in India impacts Pakistan’s immediate security. The policy cautions against Indian leadership's political exploitation of a policy of belligerence towards Pakistan and says it threatens military adventurism and non-contact warfare. Also Read |  India-Pakistan Tensions Are Irreversible For Now The reactions to NSP in India ranged from usual contempt towards Pakistan to surprise over the peace overtures. No matter what they were

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook D eaf and mute Indian woman Geeta returned home in 2015 from Pakistan after 12 years thanks largely to Salman Khan-starrer Indian film Bajrangi Bhaijaan’s success. The reel life story of the film’s main character, Shahida aka Munni, mirrored that of Geeta’s real life. Geeta was found alone at the Lahore Railway Station after she got off the Samjautha Express from New Delhi. She mysteriously boarded the cross-border train after attending a fair on the Indian side of Punjab, where her father worked as a mason. Likewise, Munni gets off a train in the film while chasing a sheep as her mother falls asleep en route to India for pilgrimage.  Also Read | As Imran Khan Faces 4th-Year Itch, Will He Complete His Term The waves the film made with its rare sensitive portrayal of cross-border characters and parallels it drew with Geeta’s story stirred an inept bureaucracy into action. The urgency worked when Geeta identified her family in a remote Bihar riv

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook I ndian Islamic scholar Maulana Hussain Madani, who headed the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary for three decades from 1927 to 1957, challenged poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal when the latter began pushing his idea of territorial nationalism in the 1930s. Madani held his own against Iqbal, a Cambridge University alumnus and arguably Urdu’s greatest poet, in an informed debate on nationhood. Madani cited Islamic sources to argue for composite nationalism and united India while rejecting Iqbal’s idea. Muhammad Ali Jinnah fleshed out the idea in the shape of Pakistan that was created by partitioning the Indian subcontinent in 1947. He overshadowed people such as Madani as he made Pakistan a reality. The division did not just trigger mass killings and migrations but also led to the Muslim brain drain to Pakistan. The drain accelerated the margination of the Muslims left behind. A decline in clerical quality that scholars such as Madani and Abul Kalam

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook I  am no stranger to lockdowns. They were the norm while I was growing up in Kashmir. I was seven when I experienced the first set of sweeping restrictions put on our movement. The curbs were imposed in January 1990 to stem further protests after scores protesting against overnight house-to-house searches were hemmed in and shot dead on a bridge over the Jhelum. It was the first of the many massacres that year, which fuelled the ongoing insurrection. We were confined to our houses in its aftermath for three weeks. Shoot-at-sight orders were in place and our neighbourhoods were suddenly swarmed by men in khaki from all over India. A cousin had a narrow escape when he was fired upon for stepping out during the lockdown. No one dared to venture out thereafter to even get essentials. We fell back on our winter stocks and were forced to survive for the longest time in recent memory on lentils. ALSO READ: Farooq Abdullah, A Man For All Seasons We th

Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow  on Facebook A  large number of Indians appear to have found something to cheer about in the middle of the devastation Covid-19 has caused in India—the Israeli dispossession of Palestinians. Unqualified expression of support for Israel has trended on social media in India as Israelis continued bombing the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and killed at least 119 Palestinians, including 31 children. The axiom that e nemy of my enemy is my friend  is clearly at work here and highlights the extent to which society has been dumbed down through sustained demonisation of Muslims over the last decade. The vilification is an important source of sustenance to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime, which looks up to Israel and has sought to emulate its policies particularly in Muslim majority Kashmir. It has been taken to such levels that many Indians mechanically side with Israel even with zero understanding of the issue, forgetting India’s deep and h