Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Stop Ceasefire Violations, restore peace in Border Areas - Statement by PIPFPD’s Pak, India Chapters

  31 July 2015

  The following is a Joint Statement issued by the Pakistan and India Chapters of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Pece and Democracy on July 23, 2015
  The PIPFPD urges India and Pakistan to immediately stop ceasefire violations and restore peace in the border areas.
  We, members of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy, strongly condemn the ceasefire violations and firings taking place on the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) or Working (…)

• PADS Condemns CBI Raids at Premises of Teesta and Javed

  31 July 2015

  The People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) strongly condemns the CBI raids on July, 14 2015 at the premises of social activist Teesta Setalvad, her husband, Javed Anand, Gulam Mohammed Peshimam and office of Sabrang Communications and Publishing in Mumbai. These raids are undertaken for purely vindictive reasons given the assurances of complete cooperation and submission of thousands of pages of documents to the CBI. It is by now an open secret that activists working for (…)

• Bangalore Citizens Decry State-sponsored Intimidation of Human Rights Activists

  31 July 2015

  The following is a statement by the Bangalore citizens against state-sponsored intimidation of human rights activists and civil society organisations.
  The CBI raid on the residence and office of activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband, Javed Anand, on July 13 and 14, 2015 is a shocking development. Socially conscious citizens perceive this as a political vendetta to insult, humiliate and intimidate the couple fighting for the rights of the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Needless to (…)

• The Desert Winds

  31 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Against the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi’s forthcoming visit to Israel, the following piece by N.C. that appeared under the ‘New Delhi Skyline’ in Mainstream more than 48 years ago is being reproduced.
  The military convulsion that rocked West Asia last week has left its indelible mark in New Delhi. There is no section of opinion in the Capital which has been left unaffected by this almost overpowering experience.
  A significant feature of New Delhi, reactions is (…)

• Story of two Travel Documents

  31 July 2015

  India’s major political parties, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have rendered Parliament to a place of tamasha. They pick up a small matter, hardly worth a mention, and stretch it to a point of debate in Parliament. True, they attract the nation’s attention but are making people more and more cynical about the highest elected bodies.
  Take the cases relating to the issuing of travel documents to Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a hard-line separatist leader from Jammu and Kashmir, and (…)

• Today’s Political Killers ...of Human Forms, of Communities, of Institutions..

  31 July 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Today’s political rulers are killing. Spreading their tactics beyond Gujarat... the ongoing killings in Madhya Pradesh are nothing short of silencing witnesses and whistle-blowers. Anyone who could speak out and pinpoint at the political figures involved in the Vyapam scam, is not allowed to survive. And these murders carry a definite pattern, yet mute we sit.
  Another politically mastered trend which has been emerging right from the Muzaffarnagar riots is this—political goons (…)

• TV Entertainment Industry in India: Characteristics and Trends

  31 July 2015

  by Naresh Nadeem
  The paper presented here, an impressionistic account, deals with the TV entertainment media in India, its course of development, its characteristics, and its implications and lessons for Pakistan. The paper seeks to situate the issue in the context of the development of the TV entertainment media that has registered a phenomenal growth in the last three decades and more so after the entry of private players in the 1990s. Three years ago, the present writer had presented (…)

• Dynamics of India-Mongolia Relations: Spiritual Neighbour to Strategic Partner in Post-Cold War Era

  31 July 2015

  by Madan Yadav
  Introduction
  Geopolitical and geo-economic factors, strategic counter-balance against China in Central Asia and South-East Asia are the new dynamic approach of Indian diplomacy with Mongolia in international relations. The recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has changed the discourse of bilateral relations with Mongolia. He is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Mongolia. India and Mongolia are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the forging of their (…)

• On BJP’s Election Manifesto

  31 July 2015, by Eduardo Faleiro

  Last March, the Government of Goa completed three years of its rule. Yet, the assurances given at the time of the Assembly elections remain unfulfilled to this day. The ruling party had promised special status for Goa under Article 371 of the Constitution. The special status was sought on two grounds. As a result of large scale purchase of land by persons from outside this territory, the average Goan cannot afford a house or land in Goa. Furthermore, there is large scale migration into the (…)

• Recovering a Lost Chapter in History of Women’s Movement

  31 July 2015, by Pamela Philipose

  book review
  Charting A New Path: Early Years of National Federation of Indian Women by Gargi Chakravartty and Supriya Chotani; People’s Publishing House, New Delhi; 2014; pages: i to xix and 360; Rs 300 (PB), Rs 450 (HB).
  When I read excerpts of Geeta Mukherjee’s speeches in Parliament in Charting A New Path: Early Years Of National Federation of Indian Women by Gargi Chakravartty and Supriya Chotani,it immediately recalled a spry compact woman with her hair tied severely in a bun and (…)