Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Can a Leopard Change its Spots?

  2 August 2014

  by Mouli Dey
  Although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may appear to be ‘accomodative’ in rhetoric, in reality and action it still remains communal. It had failed to shed off its orthodox Hindu fundamentalist ideas. Several instances during the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections 2014 bear testimony. The gesture of tolerance towards the Muslims lacks credibility. The manifesto of the BJP still echoes the desire of the party to walk on the line of mandir—masjid politics when it expresses (…)

• Condemn both Minority and Majority Appeasements

  2 August 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Minority appeasement, a game that helps no minority. But it can cut up the country into communal bits. A. K. Antony is a politician who never ruffles a feather. His style is to speak through silences and to act through suspended animation. But suddenly he ruffled every feather in every party with a seemingly simple statement: That appeasing minorities for political gains has helped communal forces to grow. Shock waves spread across the political spectrum. The rush of protests, (…)

• Vote-fraud

  2 August 2014, by Sunanda Sanyal

  This article is essentially a commoner’s view —one who lacks specialist knowledge of Political Science, understands what works for him, and what doesn’t. The relationship between a politician and a commoner should be give and take. That must be the criterion of judgment, the commoner feels. Much as he admires the politicians who, sitting in TV channels, parry questions, he wants voting to be peaceful, for he cares about his safety. A commoner wants no booth jams, no motorbike brigade; no (…)

• India Still Develops Cold Feet when the Matter concerns Britain

  2 August 2014, by Basubrata Roy

  Munkurai was on his way to a northern district town of Tripura, bordering on Bangla-desh, to attend a press programme more than one-and-a-half decade back.
  While on his journey through the highway as part of a convoy, escorted by the para-military, he could hardly have anything, not even a glass of water. So, when the escort dropped the convoy at Monu station, crossing through all the hill ranges, the crowd got joyous to have something from the roadside food joints as they had overcome the (…)

• Stop Harassment of Kobad Ghandy, Give Political Prisoner Status to Anup Roy

  2 August 2014

  The following is a statement issued on behalf of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners by its President, S.A.R. Geelani; Secretary-General, Amit Bhattacharyya; Vice-Presidents, Sukhendu Bhattacharjee and Bojja Tharakam; and Secretary, Public Relations, Rona Wilson.
  As an under-trial political prisoner, Kobad Ghandy, was initially lodged in the High Risk Ward (a jail within a jail) of Jail no 3 of the Central Jail, Tihar in New Delhi. For Kobad Ghandy, who is a heart patient, (…)

• Like Apartheid South Africa, Israel Must Be Boycotted

  2 August 2014

  The following is an interview of A.K. Ramakrishnan, a Professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has been one of those Indian scholars of international relations who continue to critique the USA and Israel’s hegemony, internalised by many as a fait accompli. An expert of West Asia, Islam and critical theory, Ramakrishnan strongly condemns Israel’s ongoing brutal attack on Gaza and thus calls for a complete boycott of Israel the way the (…)

• Ensure Justice for 148 Jailed Maruti Workers

  2 August 2014

  COMMUNICATION
  About 148 workers of Maruti Suzuki India have been languishing in jail following the unfortunate incidents at Manesar plant in Haryana in July 2012. Since then several media reports and eminent activists have expressed their surprise and indignation at the imprisonment of such a large number of workers and the one-sided actions of the authorities ignoring the workers’ viewpoint of the happenings in July 2012. Trade unions and family members have repeatedly emphasised that the (…)

• Outrageous Act, Criminal Connivance

  26 July 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  What happened at New Delhi’s New Maha-rashtra Sadan on July 22 was indeed shocking, shameful and outrageous even by the standards of boorishness associated with the Shiv Sena, one of the trusted allies of the BJP heading the ruling NDA coalition government at the Centre. A group of 11 Shiv Sena MPs, apparently angry at not being served quality Maharashtrian food at the Sadan, resorted to vandalism which is quite natural for such elements, but one of them crossed the limits of (…)

• Swaraj Should Visit Jallianwala Bagh

  26 July 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s reported statement on July 21 in Parliament regarding the Israeli aggression on Gaza is not only illogical but also morally bankrupt and cowardly.
  It was one thing to have said that the Israel-friendly Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] can never bring itself to criticise Israel on any issue under the sun. The ideological affinity between the two protagonists is all too apparent. But to play with words on such a tragic issue as Gaza is a cowardly act; it (…)

• Modi Government deviates from Historical Stand on Palestine

  26 July 2014

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  Not so much enthusiasm has been exhibited by the Modi Government in criticising the lethal aggression on Gaza, where hundreds have been killed by Israel. This explicitly shows that the government has shifted from the historically established Indian stand on Palestine.
  The Modi Government seems to have discovered that the cause of the Palestinian struggle is almost over with the further inference that the fate of the Palestinians cannot be influenced by India; (…)