Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Decrying Afzal’s Execution is not ‘Anti-National’

  13 February 2016

  by Mohammad Ashraf
  An event at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi on February 9 on Mohammad Afzal Guru, the Kashmiri young man who was executed in Delhi’s Tihar Jail precisely three years ago on February 9, 2013, found two groups of students clashing with each other leading to the police being deployed on the campus to restore order.
  The incident occurred at the end of a cultural evening organised by some students (to mark Afzal’s third death anniversary) at the Sabarmati Dhaba (…)

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  Safeguard Constitutional Values

  30 January 2016, by SC

  Editorial
  As we approach yet another Republic Day our thoughts invariably go back to Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the architect of the document embodying our Constitution, that imparted meaning and substance to the freedom we achieved from foreign rule on August 15, 1947. That document was adopted on January 26, 1950 precisely 66 years ago.
  The events of the last few days have traumatised the entire nation beyond measure. The suicide of a Dalit research scholar, Rohith Vemula, in (…)

• Gandhi for Today

  30 January 2016

  January 30 this year marks the sixtyeighth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s martrydom. On this occasion we remember him by reproducing some of his writings and utterances in the last phase of his life that remain highly relevant today.
  Gandhi for Today
  Shaheed Saheb Suhrawardy and I are living together in a Muslim manzil in Beliaghata where the Muslims have been reported to be sufferers. We occupied the house on Wednesday, the 13th instant, and on the 14th it seemed as if there never had (…)

• Netaji’s Unforgettable Words

  30 January 2016

  On January 23 this year falls Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s one hundred and nineteenth birth anniversary. On this occasion we are carrying the following excerpts from Netaji’s writings and speeches for the benefit of our readers.
  Every great movement starts from small beginnings, and so it will be in India. Our first task will be to gather together a group of men and women who are prepared to undergo the maximum sacrifice and suffering which will be necessary if we are to attain success in (…)

• Reflections on Netaji Subhas

  30 January 2016, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The birth centenary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is to be celebrated by the country shortly. The government has set up a National Committee under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister for the purpose. It is scheduled to hold its first meeting this week. Consisting of 72 members, of whom about 50 are non-officials and the rest is made up of Ministers, Chief Ministers and Governors, the National Committee has been entrusted with the task of celebrating Netaji’s birth (…)

• Unimportance of Awards

  30 January 2016, by Kuldip Nayar

  I mean no disrespect to Republic Day awardees. Except a few who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields, the rest have made the grade because they have connection, however remote, with the ruling party, this time the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The earlier regime of the Congress party was also guilty of promoting its own people for the honour.
  This is, however, contrary to the thinking of framers of the Constitution. They banned awards. That is the reason that when the (…)

• Letter to President

  30 January 2016, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The following is the text of the letter that the Editor of Mainstream sent to the President of India on January 27, 1990 detailing the reasons for his inability to accept the Padma Bhushan award conferred on him on Republic Day that year.
  NIKHIL CHAKRAVARTTY, 35 Kaka Nagar Editor Mainstream New Delhi-110003 Ph.: 697419
  January 27, 1990
  To The President of India
  Sir,
  On my way back home today after an extensive tour abroad, I find that you have conferred on me Padma Bhushan on the (…)

• Serial killing of dalit or tribal students? Rohith Vemula isn’t the Last Victim of Caste Hatred

  30 January 2016, by A K Biswas

  It is a grave misfortune of a nation of 1.25 billion people that their HRD Minister is a lair, a damn lair. Her press briefing in the evening of January 19, 2016 on the suicide of Rohith Vemula is a bundle of lies, distortion and falsification. She has no parallel; nor morals. She has forfeited her credibility as a Union Minister in charge of a portfolio that has responsibility to train minds, enlighten lives and dispel the darkness of ignorance and orthodoxy. Her press briefing was aimed to (…)

• Rohith Vemula: From Shadows to the Stars

  30 January 2016

  by Ramaiah Bheenaveni
  By committing suicide at the Hyderabad Central University, Rohith Vemula, a research scholar, has shocked the entire country and set up a political stir. An ideological person like Rohith had the potentiality to debate and confront many people, Moreover, his case, pending before the High Court, was scheduled for hearing within two days before his tragic death. What drove him to such depression is a million dollar question. Secondly, his suicide note reveals his (…)

• Nothing but a State-Sponsored Murder

  30 January 2016

  by Binoy Viswam
  Rohith Vemula’s dream was to become a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan! But the oppressive social realities around him did not allow that talented young research scholar of the Hyderabad Central University to realise his fond ambition. He was forced to end his life with a heart-touching parting note in one of his friends’ room in the new research scholars hostel. Following intervention from higher-ups in the government he and four other fellow students were (…)