Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Communist Rishi

  25 April 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings The following is a tribute that N.C. wrote after the demise of the first General Secretary of the CPI-M, P. Sundarayya, in 1985. Sundarayya was the undisputed leader of the Telangana movement along with C. Rajeswara Rao and M. Basavapunnaiah. It is being reproduced here following the election of Sitaram Yechury, also hailing from Andhra Pradesh, to the post of the CPI-M General Secretary at the recently concluded 21st Congress of the party at Vishakhapatnam.
  On May 19 (…)

• No Indication that Nehru Ordered Surveillance on the Bose Family: Sugata Bose

  25 April 2015

  by Shoaib Daniyal
  From 1948 to 1968, the Government of India meticulously spied on Sugata Bose’s father, Sisir Bose, along with the rest of Subhash Chandra Bose’s immediate family in Kolkata, as has been recently revealed.
  Sugata Bose is the grandson of Subhash Chandra Bose’s brother, Sarat Chandra Bose. He teaches History at Harvard University, is a Trinamul Congress Member of Parliament and has authored a book on Netaji, His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle (…)

• Bose Aircrash was Faked. Was he Shot in Siberia? Was he the Baba in UP? The Mystery Must End

  25 April 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Spying, the very idea, has a bad aura about it. To that extent the declassified information that Jawaharlal Nehru spied on Subhas Chandra Bose and his family makes Nehru look bad. Unexpectedly Bhagat Singh’s family has pitched in with the allegation that Nehru’s government was spying on them too, planting intelligence agents inside the family in the guise of domestic servants and research scholars. All of this may be true because it’s a familiar game governments play. Some day (…)

• State Violating Saibaba’s Fundamental Rights

  25 April 2015

  In the eleven months that the Delhi University’s teacher-activist Dr G.N. Saibaba has been incarcerated, under the UAPA provisions, in the Nagpur Central Jail, he has been subjected to barbaric treatment by the jail authorities and Maharashtra Police. Dr Saibaba’s acute physical disability and life-threatening conditions have been disregarded and he has been denied basic facilities including toilet facilities and helper, prescribed nutrients and medicines necessary for his survival. He is 90 (…)

• Beef, Buffalo and Brahmanism: The Politics of Food

  25 April 2015

  by Navneet Sharma, Pradeep Nair and Harikrishnan B.
  Cow is a national animal. Cow is our mother. Cow is a useful domestic animal. Cow has four legs, two eyes, one mouth and one tail. Cow gives us milk.... cow has a calf that grows into Sanjay Gandhi.
  Excerpts from the essay written on The Cow by a class 5 student in 1976. Source: Verbal testimony of a teacher educator
  The ‘image’ and imageries are very important in electoral democratic politics. The above essay reflects how Mrs Gandhi (…)

• Putting AAP’s Historic Victory in Perspective

  25 April 2015

  by Sanjay Mishra
  This article, which reached us in March, could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. Its contents, however, are still valid even though a bitter struggle has lately broken out within the AAP. It is thus being published for the benefit of our readers.
  Sixtyseven seats in an Assembly of 70 seats, with a vote percentage of 54.3 per cent and an average victory margin of about 28,000, almost three times the 2013 average!1 Even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had not (…)

• India: An Emerging Regional Hegemon

  25 April 2015

  by Shatakshi Bhargava
  South Asia, as a region, has always been a victim of political instability and economic disequilibrium. It is not hidden that political and economic affairs are interlinked amongst states. Nonetheless, the states have together contributed to regional development, India being the major contributor. Hence, not from now but decades, India has been tagged as a regional hegemon. It implies the influential behaviour of a state (in this case, India), the regional hegemon, (…)

• National Task and Left Politics

  17 April 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  While PM Narendra Modi is abroad visiting France, Germany and Canada trying to woo foreign investors and engaging in deals like the one on purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft he has struck in France (thereby detracting from his “Make in India” initiative), the so-called ‘fringe elements’ of the Sangh Parivar (who actually consitute the core of the saffron brigade) continue to harp on their divisive agenda thus reinforcing religious intolerance and endangering social cohesion. (…)

• Children of Democracy

  17 April 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  Religious sensitivity has deepened since the advent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime. Even though he has underlined the principle of sarva dharma samabhava, parochialism has shown its ugly face in one field or the other. The judiciary is the only institution that has been above the taint. Nonetheless, the outburst of Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph shows the pent-up feelings of a justice belonging to the minority community.
  There can be no exception to what he has said: “Our (…)

• Courts and Social Justice Litigation

  17 April 2015, by Rajindar Sachar

  Prime Minister Modi’s gratuitous diatribe of the judiciary being influenced by five-star social activists was a cheap joke which brought down the prestige of the biggest political office of the country. And to make this observation at the Chief Justices Conference, attended by the Chief Ministers of States, was an uncalled for jibe at the judiciary and a dangerously provocative example, if allowed to be followed by the Chief Ministers.
  The remark shows ignorance of the kernel philosophy of (…)