Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Unfurling Tricolour atop the Haji Pir Pass

  28 September 2015, by H K Dua

  For years after Independence and partition of the country, Haji Pir Pass was not much in the news. Even during the 1948 war in Kashmir it did not get as much display in newspapers as its strategic position warranted. After the ceasefire, Haji Pir Pass fell in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It, however, continued to be present fairly prominently on the operational maps of the two armies — India’s and Pakistan’s, and the mental map of the strategic community on the subcontinent.
  I was (…)

• A Symbol of Unity and Harmony

  28 September 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  Maharana Pratap is one of the most courageous heroes of India’s history whose 475th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Pratap defended his much smaller kingdom of Mewar very bravely against the much more powerful forces sent by Akbar, the great Mughal emperor, in the famous battle of Haldighati. Later he continued his struggles from forests and hills with guerilla warfare-type tactics, and by the time of his death he was able to reclaim some of his territory and forts.
  This story (…)

• RSS - BJP Kinship

  28 September 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  If there was any iota of doubt about the links between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi dispelled it. He presented his key Ministers to the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, and asked them to provide information on the working of their Ministries. That the Prime Minister had no qualms about it was evident from the way the entire presentation was aired on news channels. He has been an ardent pracharak of the RSS before joining its (…)

• RSS Vision of Hindu Rashtra and Modi’s Governance

  28 September 2015

  by Arun Srivastava
  There is no more ambiguity. The Modi Government is accomplishing the task of the RSS to change the secular character of India and convert it into a Hindu Rashtra. The RSS is in a hurry but does not intend to show the urgency. It has been treading quite cautiously. It is aware that rushing through the agenda would alienate the huge population of India which is basically Centrist in character, if not secular, and jeopardise the functioning of the Modi Government, even mar (…)

• Ukraine tensions easing, but US won’t let go easily

  28 September 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The endgame in Ukraine appears to be struggling to be born. The German account of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the ‘Normandy Format’, which took place in Berlin on Saturday (September 12), struck a positive note. ‘Significant progress’; ‘less confrontational’; ‘made headway in some critical things’; ‘very close’; ‘now needs to be further consolidated and secured’ — the expressions used by the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his media briefing were meaningful. (…)

• An Open letter to Dr Shashi Tharoor

  28 September 2015, by A K Biswas

  Dear Dr Shashi Tharoor,
  Your speech, driven both by facts and thoughts, in Oxford University Union on July 22, 2015 on a motion Britain does owe reparations to India, has stirred up millions of Indians at home and abroad with patriotic fervour and admiration. But this is likely to provoke areas that are equally impelling to warrant thoughts for consideration.
  Let me elaborate the points to drive home the inherent dichotomy. A section—essentially the most influential one—will (or should) (…)

• A Rejoinder to Suryakanta Mishra

  28 September 2015, by Barun Das Gupta

  The CPI-M leader, Suryakanta Mishra, who wears the double-hat of the Secretary of the party’s West Bengal unit and leader of the party’s legislative wing, has given a long ‘inter-view’ to his party’s theoretical organ The Marxist (April-June, 2015 issue). The interview is an exercise in deceit, duplicity and plain dishonesty.
  Let us examine them one by one. The interview starts with the charge that “The repression that we have been facing in West Bengal today, four years after the changing (…)

• Militancy in the North-East and Armed Forces Special Powers Act

  28 September 2015

  by Siddhartha Guha Ray
  The ambush of an Army convoy by insurgents in Manipur killed 18 soldiers of 6 Dogra unit on June 4. It was undoubtedly a dastardly act of violence, rightly condemned by the people of several walks of life. In a quick response to the action, Indian Para Commandos smashed two insurgent camps inside Mynmar territory and brutally killed about 50 Manipuri militants. The Indian politicians felt elated at the ‘heroic deed’ of the Indian Army. It is learnt from the (…)

• NMML in Danger - Statement by Leading Intellectuals

  28 September 2015

  The following statement was issued by the country’s four leading intellectuals on the proposed changes in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.
  The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library bears the name of Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), a political leader, intellectual, lawyer, thinker and author who became India’s first Prime Minister. Beyond that, and the observance of his anniversaries, the NMML (or Teen Murti, as it is popularly known) is unconnected with the perpetuation of his name or (…)

• Face of the Challenge

  20 September 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  While secular democracy is at stake under the Narendra Modi dispensation with countrywide rise in parochial communal violence spearheaded by the Hindu extremists on the one side and Muslim fundamentalists on the other, the largest circulated national newspaper in the Capital has reported today that the ongoing war on dengue (which has taken a toll of 15 lives in Delhi so far following the death of yet another child) has been crippled due to a 66 per cent drop in funds in the last (…)