Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• West Bengal at Crossroads: An Insight into the Emerging Political Dynamics

  30 March 2015

  by Ayan Guha
  Politics of West Bengal is going through a transition. The Left seems to be on a road to steady decline while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking poised to take on the role of the principal Opposition to the Trinamul Congress (TMC). There are already enough signs that indicate that the organised domain of politics has at last started to cede space to the BJP in West Bengal.
  The rise of the BJP as a credible political force apparently challenges the general notion (…)

• Morarji Rubbished early Defence Efforts; New Moves must Make Up for Lost Decades

  30 March 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  At the Aero India show in Bangalore, Narendra Modi made a statement that could well be a national motto. Said he: “I don’t want India to be No. 1 in the import of defence equipment... We should export.” This is an epiphany that took some six decades to come to our leaders. Import of fighter planes, submarines and field guns meant not only big money going to foreign companies, but also dependence on those companies in a military emergency. India, a leader in space technology and (…)

• Public Hero — Paying for Honesty

  30 March 2015, by Sudhir Vombatkere

  There is a joke doing the rounds, on failure of the pillars of the Constitution. Gandhiji in heaven asks Chitragupta as to how the three monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) are doing in India. Chitragupta replies that all three are doing well—andha bandar kanoon ban gaya; behera bandar sarkar ban gaya; aur goonga bandar vidhayak ban gaya. The desperate helplessness and frustration of people in political jokes precedes anarchic violence.
  The recent untimely death of IAS (…)

• Subhadra Kumari Chauhan — Poet, Writer, Freedom Fighter and Friend of the Poor

  30 March 2015, by Reshma Bharti

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  india’s freedom movement was a time of high ideals for many writers and poets which inspired them to devote their literary talents and creativity to the larger cause of liberation of their people and country. In the process these writers and poets accepted many hardships including jail sentences. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan (1904-1948) was one such writer who combined the writer and activist roles with a zeal and devotion which won her the heartfelt affection of millions of (…)

• SAARC, South Asia And Imperative Beyond Tired Rhetoric

  30 March 2015

  by Dev Pathak
  The SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Charter Day on December 8, 2014 occasioned a moment for a critical self-reflection. This was also pertinent with reference to the recent spurt of uncanny euphoria amongst the political leadership in the region and platitudes on the possibilities of strengthening regional consciousness. In a span of six months the idea of South Asia, in association with SAARC, seems to have acquired momentum worth critical and (…)

• Putin declassifies the Crimea file

  30 March 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s candid remarks for nearly an hour on the national television on Friday (March 13), coinciding with the first anniversary of Crimea becoming part of Russia once again, are the first exhaustive Kremlin accounts of the dramatic events last year following the ‘regime change’ in Kiev in February 2014.
  Putin divulged some ‘operational’ details, which become nuggets of history. First, Putin disclosed that the Russian “electronic surveill-ance services” had (…)

• Whither Communist Party?

  30 March 2015, by Ajayakumar Kodoth

  The 22nd Congress of the CPI has begun on March 25 at Puducherry. The following article was intended to be published before the Congress but reached us late. It is thus being published now. More articles on the Left will be carried in subsequent issues.
  by Ajayakumar Kodoth
  “It must be remembered that the general principles underlying the Communist doctrine, that is, the economic principles of social organisation, have been accepted by some of the best minds of the age, and it does not (…)

• Developed Realities in Dark Times

  30 March 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Development is more than often confused with high economic growth. Nah, we don’t even bother to query—What is development? Is development something to do with well-being or more to do with hyped economic graphs? Where is this development taking place? Why can’t we—the apolitical hapless citizens—see even traces of this development? Is this development only for those manning the very system? Who are benefiting by these hyped and bogus declarations of development? Are these (…)

• Tahira Mazhar Ali Is No More

  30 March 2015

  Distinguished Pakistani women’s rights activist and Leftist leader Tahira Mazhar Ali passed away in Lahore on March 23. Her husband, Mazhar Ali Khan, the eminent Leftist journalist, predeceased her several years ago. She is survived by her daughter Tauseef Hayat, sons Tariq Ali and Mahir Ali, grand-daughter Kamila Hayat. Her funeral took place at her residence in Shah Jamal, Lahore on March 24.
  PILER and Pakistan Peace Coalition’s Tribute
  Karachi, March 24, 2015
  Tahira Mazhar Ali (…)

• Growing Opposition amid Change in Public Mood

  22 March 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL The Budget session of Parliament is witnessing a spirited struggle by the entire Opposition against the BJP’s anti-farmer land acquisition legislation. The Opposition’s resistance to the legislation, which seeks to replace the comprehensive Land Acquisition Bill piloted by the Congress and supported by all parties (including the BJP when it was in the Opposition) in 2013, is essentially aimed at placating and appeasing the corporate lobby and multinationals. This is being exposed (…)