Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Som Benegal Is No More

  6 September 2014

  Som Benegal, journalist, writer and poet passed away peacefully at the age of 92 on August 22, 2014.
  He was a well-known theatre director in the 1950-60s and News Editor in the All India Radio in the 1940s. He was also a multi-media specialist in the fields of Radio, Television, Exhibition Design, and Journals since 1942. He was passionate about the independence of the media and served as the Secretary-General of NAMEDIA.
  He served on various committees for the Government of India as a (…)

• BJP’s Electoral Setbacks and Headaches

  31 August 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The electoral success of the joint front of the JD (U)-RJD-Congress in the recent Bihar by-elections has been able to establish not just the limits of the Modi wave but also the fallacy on the part of the ruling combine in general, and the BJP run by Narendra Modi and his protege Amit Shah in particular, to take the electorate for granted. It has once again confirmed that if the secular forces unite to prevent the split in secular votes, the BJP cannot possibly hope to repeat the (…)

• Planning in India

  31 August 2014, by Girish Mishra

  Ever since the ideas about planning took roots in India, certain political formations have been hostile to it. During the 1930s, the Hindu Mahasabha and, later, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh started attacking it. Later, when the Jan Sangh merged into the Janata Party, it took cudgels against it. It supported Morarji’s “rolling plan” which meant that planning was to be buried forever. Fortunately, the Morarji Government did not last long. When the saffron party came out of the government as the (…)

• Remembering Yojana Bhawan

  31 August 2014, by Devaki Jain

  While there is almost universal support for a change of style and focus in the Planning Commission, some of the language used and the attributes given to its earlier purpose and history are incorrect.
  As someone who has been close to those who were engaged with the Planning Commission during some of the earliest plans such as the Third Five Year Plan, and then been part of various committees and individual consultations of the Planning Commission, I recall the lively free-thinking and (…)

• Instead of Dismantling We Need a Better Planning Commission

  31 August 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  One of the most controversial decisions taken by the new government relates to the dismantling of the Planning Commission.
  While this had been talked about since the regime-change in Delhi, the Prime Minister made an official announcement in his Independence Day speech when he stated: “We’ll replace the Planning Commission with a new institution having a new design and structure....”
  This’ll be done in a hurry, as The Indian Express pointed out on August 17—“By next week (…)

• Politics of Kashmir

  31 August 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  Article 370 is not meant to reflect the liberal tilt in the Indian Constitution. It is specific. It gives a special status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir—a status which the people of Jammu and Kashmir won after waging a long, tough fight for freedom both from the British and the Maharaja ruling the state.
  Sheikh Abdullah was in the lead and achieved what looked impossible at one time, an autonomous status within the sovereign, secular Republic of India. Except three subjects—Defence, (…)

• Israeli Killings in Gaza and Our Human Instincts

  31 August 2014, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  First things first. Why did the security forces kill an unarmed 14-year-old protestor in the Kashmir Valley? This boy was merely protesting against Israel’s brutal killings of those hapless Palestinians in the Gaza settlement. At least this young Kashmiri boy had the guts and grit to protest against the ongoing genocide! And instead of honouring his spirit, we kill him! Don’t we civilians have the basic right to protest and cry out?
  In fact, this brings me to the bigger question. (…)

• Troubled Times for the Constitutional Republic

  31 August 2014, by Badri Raina

  Modiji became the Prime Minister of the Republic by virtue of two circumstances: one, having been declared the prime ministerial candidate by the Bharatiya Janata Party which won the elections, and, two, by taking the all-important oath of office to protect and preserve the Constitution as by law established. As a reminder to ourselves, that Constitution defines the republic as “India that is Bharat” rather than as anything else, such as Hindustan.
  Those who have recently, however, (…)

• BJP’s yatra Failed to Realise its Objectives

  31 August 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  who has won, and who has lost? The President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, can certainly claim that his mission was fulfilled when he unfurled the Tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk in the wintry morning of January 26, even if the last lap of the ekta yatra had to be done flying in the IAF transport Anton-32 plane.
  The huge concourse that the yatra had gathered at Jammu could not however cross the Banihal—not only because of the bad weather (…)

• Analysing Anarchy: Aroma of AAP in Indian Politics

  31 August 2014, by Kamalakanta Roul

  This article was written quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  The sensational debut of the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections and the subsequent developments which forced the party to form the government in the national Capital heralding an era of transforming power from the elite to the common, from the rulers to the ruled, from the oligarchs of democracy to the objects of democracy, has also provided an alternative political space for the aam (…)