Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• A Warm-Hearted Friend

  13 March 2016, by Barun Das Gupta

  TRIBUTE
  Purno Agitok Sangma, who passed away in New Delhi on March 4 at the age of 68, was one of the few illustrious political leaders India’s North-East has produced. His wide circle of friends and admirers will remember him as a warm-hearted friend and a host whose hospitality was fabulous. At the personal level he would be frank even with those who differed with him. From a modest beginning—he was born in a farmer’s family—he rose to be a national leader by dint of his merit.
  After (…)

• In the Name of Nationalism

  13 March 2016

  by Imtiaz Ahmad Ansari
  “The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.” — Lao Tzu
  Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNUSU President, is finally out on bail. The controversy over the anti-national sloganeering in Jawaharlal Nehru University, one of the finest centres of higher learning in the country, needs some introspection and reflection. Introspection more for those who have ‘declared’ themselves to be the only patriots of the country and reflection for the (…)

• Union Budget 2016-17: Transforming Rural India

  13 March 2016

  by P.K. Bhargava and Jyoti Bhargava
  The importance of agriculture as also of the rural sector cannot be undermined in India as a large part of the population still lives in the villages and earns its livelihood from agriculture. Unfortunately, the preceding two years have been of significant distress to this sector owing to the unfavourable monsoon. In this context, the initiatives incorporated in the Union Budget for 2016-17 deserve to be appreciated as they focus on doubling the farmers’ (…)

• GST: Palatable for Industry, Sour for Fiscal-Federalism

  13 March 2016

  by A.V. V. S. K. Rao
  “Taxes are the Sinews of the State.” —Cicero
  A Viewpoint
  So far in India, right from suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and ultimately consumers—all are made to pay indirect taxes to the Centre and States. For instance, the manufacturer pays tax to the Central Government, on the supplies made to wholesalers in different States. Manufactures add the tax component to price and charge accordingly from wholesalers. Wholesalers repeat the (…)

• Lord, Why am I Banned from Your Abode? Women’s Entry into Places of Worship

  13 March 2016

  by Ram Puniyani
  One is witnessing strange incidents where the women from Muslim and Hindu community are facing similar obstacles. This relates to the issue of entry into places of worship. While the women from the Bhumata Brigade are struggling to get entry into the Shani Shingnapur temple (Ahmednagar, Mahrashtra), the Muslim women are fighting a legal battle to restore their access to the mazar of Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. In yet another incident, the women are trying to get the right of (…)

• Real and True Nationalism

  12 March 2016

  by P. C. Jain
  The recent episode at JNU involving the student community has resurrected an old debate on Nationalism and Patriotism that had long been forgotten. What is Nationalism? and what is Patriotism? Are Kanhya Kumar and his comrades guilty of anti-nationalism? This brings to our mind the basic question: what is nationalism?
  Nationalism is the product of the “Nation”. The Nation was earlier defined as a group or community of persons having common race, religion, language, culture, (…)

• Leaders beyond Stereotype

  12 March 2016, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  In the midst of the pressure and pulls of contemporary politics, certain significant developments seem to have escaped notice. Some of these are too conspicuous, and yet one hardly finds any serious endeavour to understand them.
  The two most disciplined political parties today have leaders who are known to be extraordinarily independent of the mindset of their parties. Nobody can question Atal Behari Vajpayee’s standing as the foremost leader of the BJP or his (…)

• Eighth March in Today’s Context

  12 March 2016

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  by Gargi Chakravartty
  Eighth March, the International Women’s Day, is a milestone in the women’s movement. It was Clara Zetkin who proposed, at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1910, for the observance of an International Women’s Day with the demand of equal rights for women, especially women workers. In India during the Second World War many women, who were part of the country’s freedom struggle, were inspired by the worldwide (…)

• A Note on “Anti-National”

  12 March 2016, by Mukul Dube

  I am past the half-way mark between sixty years and seventy, but I did not until recently hear the expression “anti-national”, which is now flying around like a swarm of maddened bees. Just what might it mean?
  In accepted usage a “national” is a person who belongs to a nation, a citizen; but “anti-national” has nothing to do with this. Would it not make a damn sight more sense to use “anti-nation” as an adjective and apply it to nouns like “person” and “action”? We could leave “an (…)

• Was Afzal Guru a martyr or a militant?: JNU Students were Debating a Question that Law Can’t

  12 March 2016, by Nandita Haksar

  A Delhi High Court Bench headed by Justice Pratibha Rani gave bail to Kanhaiya Kumar, the President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, on March 2 quoting a Bollywood song. The bail order began with a stanza from a song from the film Upkar, whose last two lines were:
  Mere desh kii dharti sonaa ugle
  Ugle hiire moti mere desh ki dharti.
  It would have been entirely appropriate if the judge was alluding to Kumar as a national treasure in that reference. He is, no doubt, an (…)