Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Unmasking the Modi Regime in US

  6 October 2014, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Till about yesterday I sat wondering where are those Indians or Americans who can dare talk of the dark realities, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for his tour to America. Well, here comes the news that the Ghadar Alliance—a US-based educational/watchdog coalition created by concerned citizens in the wake of the BJP victory—is releasing on September 26, a comprehensive ‘100-day report’ evaluating the performance of the Modi Govern-ment’s first 100 days in office.
  The (…)

• Beneficial Outcome of Enhanced Participation in SCO

  6 October 2014, by Mansoor Ali

  In more than a decade of its existence, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has proved itself as an effective inter-state association. The mechanisms established for collaboration allow the institution and coordination of joint constructive efforts in different fields. Several countries and global organisations have displayed their increasing interest in cooperating with the SCO in various formats. All these facts indicate that the SCO is becoming a significant factor in regional as (…)

• True Independence Day Celebrations

  6 October 2014, by Sagari Chhabra

  This article appeared in the DNA (Mumbai) just before the Independence Day this year. It is being reproduced, with due acknowledgement, for the benefit of our readers.
  As India’s 67th Independence Day approaches and speculation mounts about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose receiving a posthumous Bharat Ratna, my thoughts go back to the Indian National Army and members of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment—the first all-women’s military wing of the world. Netaji had announced the Provisional Government (…)

• The Veto and Future Sketch

  6 October 2014, by Amna Mirza

  The recent proclamation by India at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meet in Australia— that it has the right to retain higher stock-holding of foodgrains—has led to arguments over the Bali Agreement, the final Trade Facilit-ation Agreement (TFA).
  India’s latest veto has ignited debates from the national and international levels alike. At one side, it was argued that India, with its change from the coalition era to a single party- dominant National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which rose to (…)

• Real News: Mangalyaan’s Historic Feat

  28 September 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The situation in Maharashtra prior to the impending State Assembly elections has taken a new turn with the break-up of both the alliances—that of the ruling Congress-NCP combine and the one of the Opposition BJP and Shiv Sena. However, the final picture is still unclear: even if the Congress on the one side and the Shiv Sena on the other have decided to go it alone, it is yet to be seen if the NCP would eventually have overt or covert electoral understanding with the BJP.
  But (…)

• For the people’s sake: Synchronising Sino-Indian Relations

  28 September 2014, by Uttam Sen

  India and China represent one-third of humanity to make their mutual relationship both illustrative and compelling. The choices and contradictions before the Sino-Indian multitude can serve as an example of what people at large have to live and contend with. The duo also hold the world’s attention because put together they have the power or agency to predetermine events.
  Border incursions by China into eastern Ladakh, reportedly at their heaviest on the second day of Chinese President Xi (…)

• India-China Relations: In Dire Need of Proper Management to Ward Off Differences

  28 September 2014

  by Sheel Bhadra Kumar
  Relationships in international politics, especially with neighbours, are highly complicated, sensitive and volatile. Nation-states have to handle and settle their bilateral issues very delicately keeping in view others’ concerns, perceptions and aspirations. If bilateral issues and concerns are handled delicately with neighbours, there can develop a cordial and stable relationship beneficial not only for them but also for others in the region. But If nations fail to (…)

• China Needs to see India as an Equal. Economic Ties are No Substitute to Solving Border Problems

  28 September 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  It’s a remarkable coincidence that Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping are brothers cast in the same mould. Both are believers in centralised authority, who spent their initial months in office consolidating their hold on the power structure. Both seek enlarged international status for their countries and for themselves. Both are fighters behind their smiles. Both are shrewd with the capacity to be, when necessary, ruthless. Both manoeuvre and manipulate with skill. Preparatory to his (…)

• Changing the Character of Political Discourse

  28 September 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  Narendra Modi, an RSS pracharak, could not be expected to possess a broader view of the national and global perspective as Atal Behari Vajpayee had. Modi suffered from a sense of personality complex but strove hard to project himself as the independent, new face of the Indian as well as Hindutva politics. He followed the political line: if you have to occupy the centre-stage in the political arena oppose and deride all, challenge any person who crosses you. He has been (…)

• How is the Cookie Crumbling?

  28 September 2014, by Badri Raina

  I had concluded my last article (“Troubling Times for the Constitutional Republic,” Mainstream, Vol LII, No. 36, August 30, 2014) on a note of speculation about how Modiji’s equation with the ground-level Hindutva campaign directed chiefly at Muslims and women might or might not shape in the coming days and months.
  That speculation derived from the general criticism that India’s chief executive who had assumed the numero uno position within the democratic-constitutional scheme was not (…)