Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Tribute: P.C. Joshi

  10 March 2014

  Dr P.C. Joshi was close to N.C. and Mainstream. Many of his articles and reviews appeared in this journal. As a token of our sincere homage to his abiding memory we reproduce here one of his contributions—based on his keynote address delivered at the National Conference of the Society for Communal Harmony, New Delhi, on September 26-27, 1998—that appeared in the Mainstream Annual 1999.

• Twelve Years after Gujarat 2002

  3 March 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Have the Gujarat riots of 2002 been consigned to the dustbin of history? This question assumes importance in the context of the somersault of Ramvilas Paswan, the LJP supremo. In the wake of the horrendous happenings in Gujarat precisely 12 years ago (that can hardly be called “riots” for those were nothing short of anti-Muslim pogroms by Hindu fanatics backed by even local citizens under the spell of Modiesque communal propaganda), Ramvilas Paswan came out of the NDA castigating (…)

• Addressing National Imperatives

  3 March 2014, by Uttam Sen

  As of now, there appears to be between 200 and 250 Lok Sabha seats outside the influence of the two principal coalition configurations of the NDA and the UPA. Most of the south and east, with the exception of Karnataka, appear to be beating the spell of the principal national alignments. The condition can translate into two associated possibilities.
  One is a coalition of the remainder, call it a federal front, third front or by whatever name. For the record, 11-odd parties have steered (…)

• Armed Rebellion in Ukraine and its Implications

  3 March 2014, by Arun Mohanty

  Ukraine, with a troubled history, particularly during the past two decades following the Soviet Union’s dissolution, has witnessed yet another coup engineered by armed ultra-nationalists and fascists. The Supreme Rada, the parliament of the country, in violation of the Constitution and established procedures, has declared early elections to be held on May 25, and has appointed the parliament’s Speaker, Olexander Torchinov, as the Acting President. The country’s legitimate President, Victor (…)

• The Politics of Alliance of States

  3 March 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  The Eastern Bloc was the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact. In 1922, the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR, approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin, who viewed the Soviet Union as a “socialist island”, had observed that the Soviet Union must see that “the present (…)

• Emergence of Regional Identities

  3 March 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  India may not be coming apart at the seams but the polity is. Union Ministers are quarrelling among themselves. Feuds of bureaucrats are coming out in the open. Even intelligence agencies, the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation, are at loggerheads.
  Understanding between the bureaucracy and the rulers has been reduced to trivialities. So much so that Finance Minister P. Chidambaram tells a top official to improve his English and the official, in turn, complains to (…)

• Linguism: Nehru, Patel, Rajaji were Ignored, Feroze Gandhi’s Words have Gone Waste

  3 March 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Andhra Pradesh was born after Potti Sriramulu sacrificed his life in 1952. A fulfilment achieved at such high cost is now abandoned to be replaced by two different entities. Linguism’s fatal attraction to Andhra thus continues, pulling it from one emotional precipice to another, pitting its people against themselves and holding up progress at multiple levels. This is a game of politicians, by politicians, for politicians. The people are just pawns; they stand to gain nothing (…)

• Welcome Telangana!

  3 March 2014, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  This article was written much before Telangana became a separate State of the Indian Union. It is being published now as its contents continue to be relevant today.
  Major Andhra politicians are in a dilemma on the splitting of the State. Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam had supported splitting of the State previously. Now he has developed cold feet on the issue. YSR Congress had mainly kept mum on the issue. Now it has come out in the open against the move. The turnaround seems to be (…)

• Mirror... Mirror on the Wall!: Who Were Those ‘Bad Elements’, Mr Bhagwat?

  3 March 2014, by Subhash Gatade

  ‘Cat drinks milk with closed eyes and thinks the world is not watching it.’ (Marathi Proverb)
  I
  Rare have been the occasions in recent times when the RSS, with all its anushangik (affiliated) organisations on their toes, is engaged in dousing the fire in which it has caught itself unawares. The reason being the ‘interview’ of one of its own pracharaks (wholetimers)-turned-terrorists, named Swami Aseemanand, that was published in a leading magazine of our times. (http://www. (…)

• Leaders beyond Stereotype

  3 March 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  In the midst of the pressure and pulls of contemporary politics, certain significant developments seem to have escaped notice. Some of these are too conspicuous, and yet one hardly finds any serious endeavour to understand them.
  The two most disciplined political parties today have leaders who are known to be extraordinarily independent of the mindset of their parties. Nobody can question Atal Behari Vajpayee’s standing as the foremost leader of the BJP or his (…)