Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Third Front and Left Front stand exposed in Bihar

  24 October 2015

  COMMUNICATION
  The ones who are opposed to the National Democratic Alliance Government at the Centre, headed by the Pradhan Parcharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, wrongly and euphe-mistically called the BJP Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, find it absolutely unjustified and unprincipled the positions of the Third Front and Left Front in the ensuing Bihar Vidhan Sabha elections. Incidentally, the BJP is the political child of the mother RSS.
  The Third Front, christened as the (…)

• BJP’s Politics of Social Engineering in Bihar

  24 October 2015, by Harish S. Wankhede

  Kanshiram, the late Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo, had brought bahujan as a viable political constituency to forge a political alliance between the Dalits, Other Backward Castes and Religious Minorities. This social engineering was one of the most imaginative political construc-tions to counter the domination of the social elites in politics. (Teltumbde 2006) On many counts the BSP’s social engineering attempts were unsuccessful; however, it created a dynamic social process that ensured (…)

• Bihar: Patronising Class Interest behind the Facade of Caste Consolidation

  24 October 2015

  by Arun Srivastava
  As Bihar heads for what is being described as a mini-Lok Sabha election, the politics of pretention has been replaced by pragmatism and the leaders of both the conglomerates, the NDA and Mahagathbandhan, have started focusing on the strategy of caste collaboration. The BJP, which had taken the early initiative to reach out to the voters, has also been the first to experiment with this as the party has much at stake than the Mahagathbandhan and its leader, Nitish Kumar. (…)

• The Supreme Court Revives Collegiums System — a Fresh Debate Begins

  24 October 2015, by Rajindar Sachar

  The much-awaited judgment of the Supreme Court has held on October 19 that the Constitution (Ninetyninth Amendment) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, are unconstitutional and void and the consequence is that the ‘Collegiums System’ existing prior to the Constitution (Ninetyninth Amendment) Act, 2014 has been declared to be operative.
  The Court found fault with the constitution of the National Judicial Appointment Commission, mainly for its composition. (…)

• When Damn Lies, Damn Truths are both Damn Right—the Games we can Play with Census Figures

  24 October 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  As everyone knows, there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Mark Twain did not specifically mention census because census is statistics. Ten people interpret census figures in ten different ways, all of them being damn lies and damn truths at the same time. That’s the beauty of census statistics: We an use them to suit our purpose.
  The 2011 Religious Communities Census testi-fies to this beauty. The Congress-led govern-ment did not release it, for political reasons. The (…)

• The C. Achutha Menon Government: An Effective Template Against Fascism?

  24 October 2015, by Ajayakumar Kodoth

  October 2015 marks the 45th anniversary of the first Congress-Communist Minstry headed by C. Achutha Menon. In the wake of the communal onslaught on all walks of life, a critical re-assessement of the aforementioned Ministry’s noteworthy achievements, as presented in the following article, offers an effective template against fascism.
  by Ajayakumar Kodoth
  We are just a year shy of the twentyfifth death anniversary of C. Achutha Menon (1913-1991), one of the most respected and best loved (…)

• Kerala and Beyond

  24 October 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Kerala has a remarkable capacity of being the harbinger of significant developments in Indian politics. In 1957, a new element in Indian democracy—the Communists in office—appeared for the fist time in Kerala; and less than two years later, was seen the most massive anti-Communist crusade ever organised under the aegis of the Congress with the label of “Liberation Struggle”. The 1965 elections registered the CPM as the most organised political entity in Kerala thereby (…)

• Kerala mid-term elections: Dress Rehearsal for 1972

  24 October 2015

  by C. Achutha Menon
  Kerala has been the laboratory for all kinds of political experiments, especially for various kinds of United Fronts with all sorts of permutations and combinations among a variety of political parties.
  Here it was that the Indian National Congress first lost its absolute majority in 1952 and tried to bolster itself up with a coalition with the Tamilnad Congress, a dissident group. Here it was that the first experiments in contesting elections on the basis of a Left (…)

• Mood in Kashmir Valley

  24 October 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  I have been restless and upset by the disgustingly communal moves of the govern-ment of the day. And in the midst of this I decided to travel to the Kashmir Valley to report on the flood victims’ survival in the backdrop of the fact that a considerable majority of those rendered homeless are still squatting homeless. Yes, even after a year, even as autumn is paving the way for another harsh winter. But before I could get to hear details of the dismal realities on that front, I was (…)

• Tribute to R.M. Pal

  24 October 2015

  Dr R.M. Pal, a well-known educationist and human rights activist, is no more. He breathed his last in Thane, where he was staying with his wife for the last several years, on October 13, 2015 at the age of 88. (He was born in Comilla in East Bengal, later East Pakistan and now Bangladesh, on July 17, 1927.)
  Dr Pal, who was for sometime the Principal, Rajdhani College, University of Delhi, was the President of the People’s Union for Civil Liberty, Delhi a few years ago and also edited the (…)