Srinagar, May 20 -- By Tajamul Farooqi

The phrase "appropriate time" has become the most exhausted expression in the political vocabulary surrounding Jammu and Kashmir.

Ask about statehood, democratic rights, political representation, or any meaningful return to normalcy, and the answer comes like clockwork: decisions will come at the appropriate time.

The words sound polished, but they mean emptiness.

People in Jammu and Kashmir have heard this promise too many times. They have waited through years of suspended governance, watched timelines dissolve, and seen promises pile up like unpaid debts. The phrase has stopped sounding like reassurance.

It now signals something else entirely: a holding pattern designed to keep power concentra...