Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Moral Panic in India

  10 February 2014

  by L.K. SHARMA
  Transitions and disruptions are changing relations between generations, between genders, between classes and between religious groups. It is not just a simple conflict between tradition and modernity that sparks occasional violence. India has become an excellent laboratory for studying change.
  India has been gripped by a moral panic as a result of a spate of sexual and financial scandals. Seemingly unrelated, these have a cumulative quality. The Indian male is on trial. (…)

• The Anarchic Drift

  10 February 2014, by Uttam Sen

  Over the past few weeks we have faced the classic moral dilemma, when to obey one ethical imperative was to transgress another. There were several test cases. One was the Congress Vice-President’s largely uncelebrated interview with a leading television channel. In the normal course, a public figure would talk in generalities. But the national, or perhaps prime-time, mood was such at that moment that he was put on trial on specifics. He was not really grilled on them (for example, inflation (…)

• Of Tea and Dynasty

  10 February 2014, by Badri Raina

  All my life I have regarded a few things as highly as tea. Back in America during the seventies I recall persuading a clutch of American friends to switch from instant coffee to tea if they were serious about ameliorating their everyday tensions. For the reason that, unlike instant coffee, indeed all things instant, tea demands its own time, and, once brewed, flourishes only in company and conversation. A regimen, if followed with all the caressing that tea invites, may in time lead to much (…)

• Evolution of Political Corruption

  10 February 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  In just about a year’s time, we shall be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the country’s independence when power was transferred from the unwilling hands of the British rulers to the leaders of our freedom struggle. And it is exactly fifty years now that in the last general election under colonial rule, in 1946, the leader of the Indian National Congress toured the length and breadth of this vast land promising the public that once the power was transferred, he (…)

• It’s Politics, Mr President

  10 February 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  President Pranab Mukherjee has been making speeches verging on politics from Day One. He has been commenting on the problems confronting the nation as if he is presiding over the affairs of the country. His Republic Day broadcast beats them all and has naturally evoked some angry comments. Several political parties like the Communist Party of India (CPI) have characterised the speech as political.
  What President Mukherjee says is generally correct. For example, his remarks that populist (…)

• Tribute to Pete Seger

  10 February 2014

  [( TRIBUTE
  Pete Seeger, 94, the legendary US folk singer, passed away at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital on January 27, 2014. A week earlier he was admitted there as he was suffering from ailments associated with advanced age.
  According to AFP, Seeger, with a career spanning decades, was credited with popularising the hymn of the US civil rights movement, We Shall Overcome, and was known for renditions of songs like If I had a Hammer and Where have All the Flowers Gone.
  According to (…)

• Neo-liberalism and Kejriwal

  10 February 2014

  by ARUN SRIVASTAVA
  Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the self-proclaimed liberal socialist, is the new symbol of the petit bourgeoisie, in the back-ground of John Keynes’ economic theory, for the progressive and democratic forces to bring about a fundamental change in the democratic and political institutions of the country. These forces have been carried away to such an extent by the actions and utterances of Kejriwal that they are reluctant to find fault with his dharna at Rail (…)

• Will the Muslims become a Vote-bank for AAP?

  10 February 2014, by Prem Singh

  The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) did not succeed in the Muslim majority constituencies in the recently held Delhi Assembly elections even though the AAP leadership tried hard, even monetarily, in this direction to help the candidates. In order to secure the Muslim votes, the AAP supremo visited the heads of many Islamic organisations/bodies, and also appro-ached Maulvi Taukir Raza Khan in Bareli. The AAP found Muslim candidates easily enough, even the BJP is able to seek out Muslim candi-dates, but (…)

• Many Faces of the Syrian ‘Peace Process’

  10 February 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The New York Times report that President Barack Obama is planning a visit to Riyadh in another six-seven weeks from now, towards the end of March, signals an American move to mollify the Saudi feelings over the situation around Syria and Iran. The Saudis have been angry that Obama did not attack Syria and help remove the regime and, more important, engaged Iran in direct talks.
  Obama is making a smart move to pay his respects to King Abdullah who ‘lost’ face over Syria and Iran. Two (…)

• Indian Maids and Indian Spies Move to US and Vanish — to Live Happily Ever After

  10 February 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  In one corner Devyani Khobragade, aglow with disarmingly oversize smiles. In the other, Preet Barrara, collector of celebrity heads as hunting trophies. The unequal match is so smartly manipulated that all we see is an explosion of righteous indignation—indignation over a diplomat being provocatively humiliated, and indignation over a housemaid being exploited in customary Indian style.
  How neat. But this clash of emotive issues defies logic. US-India relations are based on (…)