Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Two Poems

  11 July 2015, by Badri Raina

  Vyapam
  That you can smile and smilw and be a villain (Hamlet)
  People die all the time; it is The way of all flesh. So what does it matter how they Died, or continue to die. Such silly things cannot possibly Occupy the attention of the highest In the government, not to speak Of the routine little corruptions That may have informed some Murderous intent. What is of Greater danger to the country Is the sad fact that the media Should suddenly become so Vociferous a participant in An (…)

• Lalitgate and Vyapam: Whither BJP?

  6 July 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Whether it was a broad hint or an unambiguous message, BJP patriarch L.K.Advani’s recollection of what he himself had done when his name cropped up in the Jain-hawala scam was sufficient indication that he desired the party leaders occupying major constitutional posts—notably those of External Affairs Minister (Sushma Swaraj) and Rajasthan Chief Minister (Vasundhara Raje)—to quit their respective offices until their names were cleared of charges of serious ethical impropriety. (…)

• Party with a Difference

  6 July 2015, by Badri Raina

  All along we have been under the impression that what makes the Bharatiya Janata Party a party with a difference is its ideological commitment to Hindu nationalism. Turns out this is only one part of its USP. A second and potentially equally consequential feature, especially noteworthy now that the party occupies state power, is its ability to filibuster any sort of fact out of existence. And without the least embarrassment.
  Arguably, of course, the two specialities are closely linked in (…)

• Praful Bidwai is No More: Rest in Peace, Comrade

  6 July 2015

  Tribute
  Praful Bidwai is no more. He died in Amsterdam on Tuesday evening (June 23, 2015) due to a cardiac arrest,
  With his death we have lost the ‘best Left-wing journalist’ in this part of South Asia whose articles appeared in many newspapers and magazines in the subcontinent and in the Middle East and was frequently published by The Guardian,Le Monde Diplomatique as well.
  Praful will be missed by thousands and thousands of his readers (this pen-pusher included) who were ‘groomed’ by (…)

• Hindutva-Capitalism takes power / Attacks on Activists speak of Pathological Intolerance / Challenges before Yechury / Bengal Local Poll Results . . .

  6 July 2015

  Four articles by Praful Bidwai from 2014 - 2015

• MLAs pass Laws to put themselves Above the Law—Our Democracy is Only for the Pappu Yadavs

  6 July 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  We can sing hallelujahs for democracy all our lives, but democracy will remain a system where some people are more equal than others. We don’t have to look at the magical life of Lalit Modi to see this reality. Look at Pappu Yadav.
  On a flight from Patna to Delhi, he refused to switch off his mobile phone, refused to put his seat upright for landing, threw food in the aisle and threatened the cabin crew with his chappal. Can any of us get away with such behaviour? Pappu Yadav (…)

• Sun Sets on the British Empire

  6 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  When we were young, our school-books said: “The sun never sets on the British Empire”—that meant whichever way you turned the globe, a piece of British Empire could be seen on the map. This week, in an extravaganza resembling a Hollywood premiere, the exit of the British Empire from the last piece of territory outside Britain was shown on the sovereignty of Hong Kong having been resumed to the People’s Republic of China as the Prince of Wales with his faithful (…)

• Dynasty Needs to Explain

  6 July 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  I am sorry to revert to the Emergency yet again, over two successive weeks. R.K. Dhawan, Mrs Indira Gandhi’s confidante, has disclosed that Sonia Gandhi had no qualms about the Emergency. This is contrary to what I had heard when the Emergency was imposed. It was reported that both her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, and she were thinking to return to Italy to bring up their children in a “free atmosphere”.
  Dhawan’s observation about Sonia Gandhi makes all the more obligatory for her to explain her (…)

• An Out-of-Touch Indian Journalist

  6 July 2015

  by Syed Badrul Ahsan
  The first time I heard of Kuldip Nayar was in the early 1970s. His slim work, Distant Neighbours: A Tale of the Subcontinent, had just been published in India. It was the theme of the book, Nayar’s interviews of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on their meeting soon after Pakistan’s military defeat in Bangladesh and the Bengali leader’s release from solitary confinement in Mianwali to house arrest near Islamabad, which aroused my interest in (…)

• The Akhand Hindu Rashtra: Micro World Macro Nationalism

  6 July 2015

  by Navneet Sharma, Pradeep Nair and HarikrishNan B.
  “Ye, who by race, by blood, by culture, by nationality possess almost all the essentials of Hindutva and had been forcibly snatched out of our ancestral home by the hand of violence—ye, have only to render wholehearted love to our common mother and recognise her not only as Fatherland (Pitrabhu) but even as a Holyland (Punyabhu): and ye would be most welcome to the Hindu fold.” From Essentials of Hindutva by Savarkar)
  The above (…)