On Friday, the Home Ministry sent out a notification to the state of Jammu & Kashmir asking the pilgrims to curtail the rest of the pilgrimage to the holy deity of Amarnath and move out of the state at the earliest possible. Amid a potential security threat and infiltration by Pakistan, 38,000 additional troops have been sent to the different vulnerable spots of Jammu & Kashmir. On the request of the state’s Governor, Indian Air Force has deployed C-17s Globe-master aircraft to airlift pilgrims. The motive behind such heavy deployment of paramilitary forces is still unclear. Speculation is rife that the Modi government is planning to revoke article 35A and article 370 that has been at the forefront of all the agendas of the lotus party.

What is Article 35A?

Article 35A was incorporated in the Indian Constitution by a Presidential order in 1954 that confers special rights and privileges upon the permanent residents of Jammu & Kashmir. Some of the privileges which the permanent residents enjoy are employment under the state government; acquisition of immovable property in the state; a settlement in the state; or right to scholarship and such other forms of aid as the state government may provide.

Who are the permanent residents?

The Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir came into force on 26th January 1957. It retained the definition of permanent residents of the state of J&K. All persons who are born or settle within the state before 1911 or after having lawfully acquired the immovable property resident in the state not less than 10 years before that date are permanent residents. All emigrants from J&K, including those who are migrated to Pakistan are considered as state subjects. The permanent residents’ law prohibits the non-permanent residents to acquire property in the state, government jobs, settlement in the state, scholarships, etc…

Evolution of Article 35A 

With the help of the notifications of 1927 and 1932, the Dogra ruler of princely state Maharaja Hari Singh imposed a law that defined the state subjects and their rights and the term of regulating migrants to the state. In October 1947 when the Instrument of Accession was signed by Hari Singh, Jammu and Kashmir came under Indian territory. Thereafter Sheikh Abdullah took over the charge and reins from the Dogra ruler Hari Singh.

1949 and ‘Article 370’

In negotiations with the then Prime Minister of India Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah succeeded to get ‘Article 370’ inserted in the Indian Constitution. Article 370 guarantees ‘special status to Jammu & Kashmir’. Accordingly, all the provisions of the Indian Constitution do not apply to it. However, the three areas were restricted to the Union Legislative powers; Defense, Communications and External Affairs.

Root Cause of the conflict/Legal Route to revoke Article 35A

Article 35A was incorporated in the Constitution in 1954 by an order of the then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad on the advice of the Nehru cabinet. The controversial Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order of 1954 followed the 1952 Delhi Agreement, entered between Nehru and the then Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah, which extended Indian citizenship to the ‘State subjects’ of Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2014, a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO ‘We the Citizens’ challenging the validity of both ‘Article 35A’ and ‘Article 370’. It argues that four representatives from Kashmir were part of the Constituent Assembly involved in the drafting of the Constitution and the State of Jammu and Kashmir was never accorded any special status in the Constitution.

It argues that Article 35A was added by the Presidential order, not as per the provisions of ‘Article 368′ of the Indian Constitution, no amendment happened as the article came into effect immediately without any consensus building. It was evident that the Parliament was not consulted or no legislation had been laid to grant special provisions to the permanent resident of J&K.

Challenge before the Supreme Court

A batch of petitions challenged the constitutional validity of Article 35A. In 2018, a Supreme Court bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India JS Khehar referred the matter to a three-judge bench.

The NGO, in its petition, argued that Article 35A goes against the “very spirit of oneness of India” as it creates a “class within a class of Indian citizens”.

Another petition, filed by lawyer Charu Wali Khanna, claims Article 35A discriminates against a woman’s right to property

Dalit Rights, Women Rights, and Human Rights issues

In 1957, Valmik community was imported from neighbouring Punjab to J&K after the state faced a serious crisis of sanitation due to the strike and agitation by the manual scavengers. They were guaranteed citizenship under article 35A but on the cost of practicing the ill practice for life long. Even if they wanted jobs, they would be given sanitation jobs in the government, so as their forthcoming generation. Any Kashmiri woman who gets married to a non-Kashmiri would be a subject of boycott from the ancestral or patriarchal property rights. But it was challenged in J&K HC and the verdict came in support of women as it ordered women will get rights in the property but the children/child of that woman won’t be a part of any such succession rights. Hence they will be ‘disfranchised’.

Constitutional experts argue that Article 35A is the clear violation of fundamental rights as Article 14/15/16 guarantee ‘Right To Equality/Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, caste, sex or place of birth/Equality of opportunity in matters of public employment, respectively. It also violates ‘Article 19’ that protects rights regarding freedom of speech and expression and Article 21 that ensures ‘Right to Life and personal liberty’.

(Views expressed are personal.)

The Indian Film industry is full of people who have reached the heights of success not because of their talent but because of which family they belong to. It is hard to make it in the Bollywood without nepotism or a godfather-like Salman Khan. However, there are few who are breaking into the industry solely because of the great talent they possess and one such underdog is Roy (Gopal) Rajpurohit.

Hailing from a small city – Jalor whose name you probably might not have even heard of, Roy came to Mumbai in 2010 with eyes gleaming of dreams. Through his sheer hard work and `determination, he established his company Roaring Lions Production which is now one of the best inline production companies. 

Roy has currently bagged a role of second lead in South Indian director Sundar C’s upcoming blockbuster. Sundar C has worked with great actors like Rajnikant and Prabhudeva and this just raises the expectation with Roy and his upcoming blockbuster. The film will be Roy’s south Indian debut and actor has already started preparing for his role.

Archana Sadanand an Indian beauty, fashion, and lifestyle influencer who is well renowned for her Fashion and Lifestyle subjects has taken over the Internet with her sensational ideas and content generating immediate individual attention.

Archana a self-made fashionista Blogger has worked with a number of well-renowned brands has also been a part of a number of modeling projects. Archana also has a grip on beauty and cosmetic fields. 

Archana’s blogging site is considered to be one of the fastest-growing blogs, reaching the mass, making her a well-renowned name in the blogging world also her Fashion and Lifestyle and Travel subjects is a treat for the blogger having the same forte.

Archana Sadanand has also been featured in a number of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Khaleej Times, Ahlan, Wknd, etc she’s also been awarded as the rising digital influencer 2017. Some of her recent works include collaborations with brands such as Aldo, Holidayme & Malaysia Tourism, Starbucks, Malabar Gold and many more.

Allow your passion to become your purpose, and it will one day become your profession. These words describe Lokesh Verma, Delhi’s renowned tattoo artist and a record holder in the Guinness Book of World Records. Lokesh became the first Asian to address at the very first University of Tattooing and Fine Arts “Academie Tier Polo, Italy”.

He is a perfect inspiration for many. While pursuing graduation, he did alternative jobs to pay his fees. Right from distributing pamphlets to mopping floors in McDonalds, Lokesh saw a lot of struggle. During his MBA course, he did three jobs and also started tattooing on weekends. He brought a new tattoo machine from his parents after realising his passion for tattoo art.

“My father never held me back from experimenting. He always supported me and boosted by morale in whatever I chose to do” – says Lokesh. At the start, he designed free tattoos for his friends. His work got a lot of appreciation. Working from his best friend’s house, he soon owned two tattoo studios.

His incredible industry knowledge saw him being invited to work with the top studios in the USA.  Lokesh was also invited to the very popular Sullen TV to do a shoot. Moreover, he is also the first Indian artist to start coloured realism and portraits style of tattooing. 

Till now, Lokesh has worked in 15 countries and today he has a team of 13 brilliant artists who are not just learning together but even growing together.

Rohit Goyal from Panipat  (Haryana) has reached the moons with his sensation digital strategies and extraordinary content.

Rohit in his college going days became an Instagram daft with such unique and creative content that one couldn’t skip making him a digital catch.

Rohit Goyal with his Instagram page ‘The adult society’ (TAS) has created a buzz not only across India but also has caught the eye of the Bollywood industry.

Rohit Goyal with his tremendous social media knowledge and strategies has runner promotional campaigns for ‘tik tok, helloapp, aam aadmi party, tseries and many more.

Today, ‘The adult society’ is one of the biggest meme accounts in India having celebrities such as Malaika Arora, Arjun Kapoor and a number of ace singers following the same.

19-year-old Siddiqui Subhani a small-town boy from Allahabad came to Mumbai having big dreams and a successful idea of being a renowned name in the digital marketing world.

Today he is one of the most resourceful entrepreneurs in his field. Having to take up a number of projects, proving himself just under the age of 19 Siddiqui has made his way to the moons with his tremendous content generation and digital knowledge.

Siddiqui also has his hands firmly in a lot of political social campaigns and is currently working on something big coming up sooner this year.

Siddiqui Subhani truly is an inspiration for the youth with tremendous digital media power and potential. Siddiqui with his extraordinary startup ideas has become the most influential digital bug of the country.

Siddiqui has held campaigns for movies like Sarbjit, Sui-Dhaaga, Gold, Maadari and many more under Filmymantra Digital pvt ltd.

We see many personalities on the Internet get famous due to their looks and style and achieve massive popularity with it. Isabella Buscemi is a super hot model who is stunning and beautiful. She is a diva of our time. Isabella is branding for many sports, lingerie, and swimwear brands. She has been featured in many top magazines and contests around the globe.

Her life has changed after 2017 as she has won many prestigious awards, she won the best model who comes on a magazine cover, and in 2018 she repeated the same glory and set a new milestone for her.

This stunning beauty has a huge fan following, and they all love her dearly and support her in every new thing she does in her life. Well, in return Isabella shares her pictures and videos of how she cares for her physique, style and way of life. Her videos and pictures have been an inspiration for many. Lots of girls are getting motivated with her workouts and diet program.

Isabella has one of the most beautiful curves that any model can have, all thanks to her right workouts and right balanced diet. She trains with high routines around 14 per set; she believes in high volume training, and that’s the secret of her stunning curvy figure.

Due to her intense workouts, she can get such a figure, and to achieve such a figure is almost impossible for other top models. Isabella mixes things for maintaining cardio. She never stagnates. She actually divides her workouts, some days intense workouts, and only light jogging and treadmill on somedays.

Other than workouts, Isabella believes in balancing food. She always takes full care of what she needs to eat and also does a routine control of macros. She believes in the right food rather than tasty food; she knows how to maintain protein and vitamins in her diet. To achieve such curves, you have to be smart in maintaining your Nutritions, and Isabella does it entirely.

Isabella Buscemi is a Diva and beauty Queen of our time and lovely motivator for girls who want to get curves like her. She always helps others by sharing her videos and pictures and all for her friends and followers.

We wish Isabella Buscemi keeps on winning our hearts with her beauty, and she gets more rewards in her life for her dedication and hard work and also for stunning beautiful curves and looks.

Stand-up comedy in the United States got its start from the stump-speech monologues of minstrel shows in the early 19th century. It also has roots in various traditions of popular entertainment of the late 19th century, including vaudeville, English music hall, burlesque or early variety shows, humorist monologues by personalities such as Mark Twain, and circus clown antics. Fast-forwarding to the 21st Century, the definition of stand up comedy has evolved. It now involves slapstick humor, lewd innuendos, puns. The industrialization has ensured this paradigm shift. People look at stand up as a medium to escape the daily fatigue life brings them. 

Out of all the success stories this art has promised, the story of Ari Mannis is that of overcoming stereotypes and making a living out of this traditional yet modern art. 

Mannis attended New Mexico Military Institute for High School in Roswell, New Mexico and graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz where he studied film and digital media. 

After graduating college, Mannis moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began his stand-up career. In 2017 he appeared on MTV Greatest Party Stories Ever and has performed in festivals such as Kaaboo Music and Comedy Festival, as well at The Laughing Skull Comedy Festival. Mannis’ comedy has been featured in online forums such as College Humor, FunnyOrDie, and Nerdist] He currently does a monthly comedy show in the living room of his apartment which has been featured on Airbnb, Yelp, Forbes, LA Weekly, and Comedy Vortex. 

Being an individual performing a set of jokes in front of an audience is the last thing a digital media graduate aspires to be. Yet, Mannis took on the Herculean task of creating a name for himself. 

What makes the journey more special is the fact that Mannis shifted to LA- the Mecca of stand up comedy. With favorites like Gabriel Iglesias, Louis Ck, Russell Peters performing at clubs across every block, creating a name isn’t easy. The bar has been set very high in the city. Yet, that didn’t stop Ari. 

He went on to win the 2018 KAABOO discovery tour. Mannis even started his comedy news and podcast network called, StandUpTalk in which his podcast “Unlicensed Therapy,” can be found. “Unlicensed Therapy,” has been featured on SoundCloud and iTunes where he has gained over 500,000 subscribers. 

Ari can be seen touring all over either by himself or opening for comedians such as Theo Von, Amir K, Fahim Anwar, and Pauly Shore. He has performed in many Comedy Festivals including The Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, Beast Village, Golden Spike, Burbank, LA Scripted Comedy Festival, Big Pine, Ventura Harbo & The Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival. 

With an average of around 20k views on every Youtube video, Ari is making it big on social media too. His story proves that innuendos and puns can pave a path to success too. 

B-town has changed a lot from the past decade now we see lots of beast machines(cars) in movies, exotic locations and role of Handsome Businessman with stunning looks and style. Now, do you feel these things are imagined by directors by themselves well answer is NO, then where do they get the inspiration from? Well, these directors get inspired by Business Moguls like Rohit Reddy, who is an ideal example of how a business person should be in real life. Movie makers copy the style of Businessman like Rohit Reddy in their movies.

Rohit Reddy, a famous name of Hyderabad, is known for many things in his real-life starting from his Business, then his Dressing Style and muscular Physique to top cars and everything.

Rohit Reddy look superb whether he is repping a suit or going smart-casual at work – proof that you no longer need to wear a tie to be the most stylish man in the office.  Owner of Signature Developers is currently India’s style icon in the list of Businessman. Whatever he does becomes and trend in Hyderabad. If we keep the award for best-looking Businessman, most stylish man, most well-dressed Businessman, Fittest businessman than all these awards will definitely go to Rohit Reddy.

It is rightly said clothes make the man and who don’t wear it right cannot influence society. For Rohit style comes naturally to him. He is a fashionista and loves to try new things. According to Rohit, only cars and Villas cannot impress everyone. It would be best if you had excellent dressing sense too.

Rohit tries many different clothes according to days and schedules. Don’t get surprised by his look he is not an actor of B-town nor a fashion-related person; he is creating his own style. 

This young Real Estate Mogul is creating lots of Buzz in the market with his stunning pictures on the social media platform. Looking at his looks and style, surely he would have got many offers to join movies.

You rarely see CEO in jeans and T-shirt because for that you need to have that Physique. He has better Physique and styling than Tom Cruise you might find us bias, but for proof go to his Insta pictures you will agree with us. 

NDTV’s Ravish Kumar is the new recipient for the prestigious 61st Ramon Magsaysay Award, 2019 for ‘harnessing journalism to give voice to voiceless’. A widely acclaimed and celebrated TV journalist in India, Ravish is known for his popular news show ‘Ravish Ki Report’ and ‘Prime Time with Ravish Kumar’ on NDTV India. Informally known as ‘Nobel of Asia’, the premier award is named after Ramon Magsaysay, the third President of Republic of Philippines. Other than Ravish, Angkhana Neelapaijit from Thailand, Myanmar-based journalist Ko Swe Win, Kim Jong-Ki from South Korea and Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab from the Philippines were also bestowed with the same honor.

The award citation quotes, “In a media environment threatened by an interventionist state, toxic with jingoist partisans, trolls and purveyors of ‘fake news,’ and where the competition for market ratings has put the premium on ‘media personalities,’ ‘tabloidisation,’ and audience-pandering sensationalism, Ravish has been most vocal in insisting that the professional values of sober, balanced, fact-based reporting be upheld in practice.”

This laurel for an Indian has come at a time when India’s freedom of press index has dropped two places to 140th globally, while many journalists are being targeted by the authorities sitting in power. Sometimes, the perpetrators are corrupt powerful muscleman in a smaller city, a sand mafia, liquor mafia, police, politicians or the government of the day. Citing the physical violence against the journalists in India, the International watchdog for freedom of press, Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders, RSF) highlights the plight of journalists working in Non-English media outlets in rural areas.

Violence/Intimidation against journalists

On 28th July, Pradeep Mandal, a Bihar-based local reporter of a Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, was shot dead by two gunmen on a motorcycle. Speculations were rife that he was attacked in connection of a news story he wrote about two traffickers indulged in unlawful activities of liquor trafficking. (It is to be noted that liquor in Bihar was banned by the Nitish Kumar’s government after implementing the Directive Principles of State Policy.) The assailants were later identified and Madhubani police issued a warrant against them, but no arrest could be made so far. In March 2018, two Dainik Bhaskar journalists, Naveen Nishchal and Vijay Singh were mowed down by an SUV in Bhojpur district over an investigative report against a village leader. 

Rajen Deka, a reporter for Dainik Asom, one of Assam’s leading dailies, was ambushed and attacked with sharp weapons while returning home in Nalbari district on the evening of 25th April. The assailants were allegedly linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He survived with injuries to the head, chest and arm.

Two more journalists were intimidated and attacked after this incident. News18 TV reporter Upasana Barua Goswami was the intimidated by four miscreants in a restaurant in Tinsukia district, in Assam. Her assailants were later arrested. 

Rajiv Borah, a journalist who owns E-media and works for the regional TV channel DY365, was also attacked and beaten by five miscreants in Jorhat (Assam), a city 180 km southwest of Tinsukia. Only one assailant was arrested in this case.

It is evident that North-Eastern India has become one of the most unsafe places for local journalists. It is to be noted that in the year 2017, two Tripura-based journalists, Sudip Datta, and Santanu Bhowmik were killed.  

Revathi Pogadadanda, a program host with Mojo TV was arrested by Hyderabad police at her home on the morning of 12th July. She captured her arrest in a series of tweets: “Cops at my doorstep! They want to arrest me without a warrant. They tell me am creating a law and order problem!”

The police arrested her after a complaint raised by one of the participants in a discussion program about a court order allowing women entry in the Sabarimala temple in Kerala. The guest accused Revathi of insulting him when she defended women’s rights.

The Silver Linings

The new Ramon Magsaysay awardee journalist is known for his fearless views against the establishment. After the cold-blooded murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, he spoke vociferously at an event organized at Press Club of India and condemned the killing of the journalist. Now when he is honored with such a prestigious award, many hapless rural journalists would be now hoping to see the silver lining in the clouds.

The award citation says, “His moral courage in standing up for truth, integrity, and independence; and his principled belief that it is in giving full and respectful voice to the voiceless, in speaking truth bravely yet soberly to power, that journalism fulfills its noblest aims to advance democracy.”

Since Ravish Kumar is admired and idolized by many journalists, especially tier-2 cities’ Hindi journalists, there will be a sense of hope among them that they can also get recognized for their work one day. If not recognized, then this occasion might compel the government of the day to ensure a safe and protective environment for the stringers filing a report in the remotest area of Bihar, Assam, Tripura or Hyderabad.

(Opinion Expressed by the author is personal.)