Editor in Chief Note
Political commentators, strategic analysts, journalists – all are supposed to reach the truth to their respective audiences. They must not be guided by biases. In our contemporary world, politics is no more a battle of ideas. It is a filthy race to power. The responsibility to bring out the inconvenient truths and put things in the right perspective lies on public intellectuals. The tribe should be receptive to new ideas and willing to change position if new facts emerge. Unfortunately the public intellectuals of Kashmir are as stagnant as most in the political class. At times I have observed the political elites evolve to new realities. No such concession to emerging truths by Kashmir’s public intellectuals, particularly journalists. They don’t want to come out of the dark tunnel, and they don’t want to point to the light on the other side of the tunnel.
Most of Kashmir’s public intellectuals – journalists included – have lied for decades. They continue to push their lies, desperate to sell it as the truth. Why do they lie so profusely, so profoundly? Because they earn from their lies far more than they would earn by speaking the truth. They are part of the brigade of conflict entrepreneurs. They blow things out of proportion. They upload unverified content as if it’s a professional obligation. They paint their homeland as a place of gloom and doom.
These traders of falsehood never want to see smiles on the faces of Kashmiris. They never want Kashmiris to celebrate all that nature has blessed us with. They don’t want to see Kashmiris in peace. They conspire against you if you prove their horror stories wrong. They don’t have the humility to accept new ideas and evolve with the changing situation. They are entrenched in the past, and have no futuristic vision. But life has its own rhythm. Cynicism and despair never define life. Men of courage refine the ideas, define the goals and determine the future.
