Yogi's Corner

Come January 2019, insurrection in Kashmir will turn thirty. How do we assess the present status of this insurgency in the Valley?   Indeed, insurgents are setting the narrative in Kashmir. A report compiled by the J&K Police, in August 2018, establishes this reality. Over the last decade, the number of active insurgents hovered around 200, even touching a low of 78 in 2013 – lowest since 1990. Police report projects their present figure to be 327 of which majority, 211, are locals. While Hizb-ul- Mujahideen (HM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) - estimated cadres 141 and 128 respectively- retain their dominance, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) too have strengthened its base this year 1 . In the backdrop of high attrition rate, 200 in 2017 and 130 thus far this year, these numbers are ominous. The insurgency in the Valley has had its lows- periods of relative peace- yet it has sustained all this while and end to this conflict seems nowhere in sight. Over the last three decade...

Precedence has it that Independence Day address to the nation by the Prime Minister is supposed to be a report card of government's achievements and annunciation of future initiatives. Thus far, most PMs have refrained from lacing their speeches, from ramparts of Lal Qila, with any political rhetoric. This year, Modi made a departure by tweaking his address into a political one with an eye on forthcoming Bihar elections. His address, sans any reference to national security situation, foreign policy and, most importantly, to Naga Accord which still remains shrouded in a mystery, lacked luster, both in content and conviction. Post the address, veterans of Armed Forces, who are on a Relay Hunger Strike (RHS) at Jantar Mantar for more than two months now, were a disappointed lot. They expected Modi to announce implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP). That was not to be. Their honour having been bruised by Delhi Police a day earlier, veterans' anger against Modi Government is...

Section 498a, ever since its insertion in Indian Penal Code in 1983, has been a case of letting loose a ‘legal’ monster. Besides providing an additional tool to the law enforcing agencies to make some quick bucks from hapless and ignorant victims of this legal abuse, instances are galore wherein estranged wives exacted astronomical sums from husbands and their relatives who are often compelled to settle for unjust out-of-court compromises under ever-looming shadow of humiliating police detention followed by long drawn legal battles. Originally, the law was enacted with a laudable object of punishing cruelty at the hands of husband or his relatives against a wife, particularly when such a cruelty had the potential to result in suicide or murder.  There might have been compelling reasons then for lawmakers to enact a law to curb the menace of domestic violence and reprehensible dowry demands by the grooms and their families yet what they enacted was so lopsided a law that humiliated...