Mainstream Weekly

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• Tribute to Som Benegal

  23 February 2015, by S Viswam

  TRIBUTE
  Veteran journalist, writer and poet Som Benegal passed away in New Delhi precisely six months ago on August 22, 2014. His close friend and colleague, S. Viswam, the well-known journalist, has sent the following tribute for publication on the occasion of Benegal’s 93rd birth anniversary.
  22-2-22: A Remembrance
  S. VISWAM
  Not all will agree with me when I say that there are certain games of and in life that are best left to children to play. One of them is the make-believe joy (…)

• Defending Conviction, Discussing Progress

  23 February 2015

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  by Noor Zaheer
  Liking Progress, Loving Change by Rakshanda Jalil; Oxford University Press; 2014; pages 482 + 29 pages Introduction; Rs 1495.
  “........the arrangements might have lacked finesse, but they more than made up in the dynamism of its organisers and the sheer magnetic appeal of the message that was being conveyed from the Rafah-e-Aam Hall. For, after Gandhiji’s call for Satyagrah, the most important mass movement unfurled from within its portals. A literary (…)

• People Assert — Modi-Shah Duo Bites the Dust

  16 February 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  How does one interpret the incredible results of the just-concluded Delhi Assembly elections? Was it a political earthquake, a tsunami or an avalanche that brought about such an unbelievable outcome? Whichever way one looks at it, the fact is that the people have emphatically asserted to reject the Modi dispensation by forcing it to bite the dust at the hustings. This is what has made these elections both historic and memorable.
  The arrogance of power, writ large over the faces (…)

• The People For Ever

  16 February 2015, by Bishnu Dey

  How many brigands have raided our country, how many times? Ravaging village after village, piling up cruelties, crimes! How many bulbuls have ravished our grains, Mothers have crooned of tyrannical reigns, In spite of it all the proud spirit remains Of the people forever! The peasant, the potter, the fisher, the blacksmith, the boatman, the weaver! The soul is immortal in this immortal country of mine, And hence out of Death’s deep mouth comes music adamantine, Here on the margin of (…)

• Have Faith in the People’s Faith

  16 February 2015, by Suhas Borker

  Have Faith in the People’s Faith The people’s barricades are up in sixty-seven zones the juggernaut of the Ashvamedha horse has been bridled and stopped and for once the cries of the last man and woman from the rotten and stinking gutters of the underbelly of Delhi have been heard. It is a wake-up call to the believers of the Idea of India. Have faith in the people’s faith in democracy! Have faith in the people’s faith in the Republic!
  February 10, 2015 Suhas Borker
  [Suhas (…)

• morning after delhi poll outcome: so what really happened? Facing the Anger of the Sane and the Just

  16 February 2015, by John Dayal

  The Aam Admi Party won, the Bharatiya Janata Party got the drubbing of its life, the Indian National Congress drew a blank, as did the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Indian National Lok Dal. And Mr Arvind Kejriwal won hearts embracing his Income Tax official wife, Sunita, in a public display of affection not seen since the first figurines were made in Vrindavan-Mathura many a yug ago.
  Delhi, as the National Capital Territory, sends seven members to the Lok Sabha and three to the Rajya Sabha. (…)

• Revolt of the Disenchanted: How the Mighty are Pulverised

  16 February 2015, by Badri Raina

  Muscular arms spread wide on either side of the lectern, self-love dripping from a habitually cocksure visage, the mighty one thundered thus at one of his several election rallies in the national Capital: “They say how lucky Modi is; he becomes Prime Minister and global oil prices crash by a whopping half; well then, I say to you, why vote for the unlucky, vote for the lucky one.”
  Not so lucky, after all. While the great man thundered thus in complete self-assurance, like Eliot’s Bradford (…)

• Delhi’s Valentine Day Gift

  16 February 2015, by Uttam Sen

  The AAP’s thumping victory was a token of the fulfilment the people of Delhi preserved for themselves. As an eloquent newscaster described the electoral landslide, it approximated the symbol of affection and goodwill conveyed to a loved one on the martyrdom of a 3rd century Roman saint, his name also tagged to the vigour and vitality associated with the youth. If the statements of the AAP’s prominent leaders were to be heeded, the party was the aam aadmi’s vehicle for realising his/her (…)

• Victory for Democracy: The Voter’s Mind

  16 February 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  The AAP’s historic win in Delhi is, above all, a victory for democracy. What the humble but great Indian voters have shown once again is that when most crucial issues like secularism and democracy are at stake, then they assert themselves against all odds for the protection of our most cherished values. Secondly, the way in which money power has been defeated is another important part of this victory of democracy. There is no doubt that massive funds were used by the BJP in legal and illegal (…)

• BJP’s Fall and Emergence of Ethical Questions in Delhi Elections

  16 February 2015

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  The Delhi election results may come as a surprise to many including the BJP and PM Modi but the decline for the BJP was set in the UP by-elections. Several plausible explanations will be offered by the political pundits but many others, which tilted the balance against the BJP, can be found in the Lok Sabha election victory of the BJP.
  The Lok Sabha poll victory was analysed as the Modi wave. True, it was; but it was never comprehensively analysed to bring out (…)