Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Reflections on Republic Day, 2014

  28 January 2014, by Syed Shahabuddin

  I
  Bleeding India, Burning India, Battered India, Beleaguered India, Bewildered India, Disintegrating India, Starving India, Dying India
  • in which democracy has become the government of the elite, by the elite, for the elite, dividing people vertically and horizontally;
  • in which the higher strata, the elite, form a separate nation, colonising the motherland;
  • in which politics has turned into commerce and trade;
  • in which Corruption has become a way of life in every sphere;
  • (…)

• AAP in Perspective: Birth of the ‘New Alternative’

  28 January 2014, by Diptendra Raychaudhuri

  As we stepped into 2014, India seemed prepared for a real socio-political leap forward. More significantly, this leap forward is characterised by one single word: Optimism. And this time this optimism is essentially anti-elitist, directed against the corrupt, opportunist, self-serving class that was dominating the scene since the 1990s. This optimism is still limited to the ‘common man’, that is, about 30 to 40 per cent of our people; but if the guardians of this ‘optimism’ do not falter (…)

• Indian Political Scene

  28 January 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  The Indian political scene, even though fractured and patchy, is acquiring a shape of sorts. The emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), founded by NGOs, sneeringly called the jholawalas, has changed the scene. It has provided the much-needed alternative to the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which are the same wine in two different old bottles.
  Regional parties, which have a sway in the States, look like the biggest losers. Their appeal in the name of language, area or religion (…)

• Nuclear Collusion

  28 January 2014, by S G Vombatkere

  India’s Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated a nuclear power plant (NPP) at Gorakhpur in Haryana on January 13, 2014. This NPP is an invitation to disaster since it relies on canal water for cooling, and canals can, and do, run dry. Besides, routine radioactive discharges into the cooling water will reach downstream canal users. Also, in the event of a serious nuclear accident, even full-flow water in the canal will be woefully insufficient to handle the crisis. At another level, it (…)

• India’s Failed Development — Create a New Model Rooted in Cultural Ethos

  28 January 2014, by B P Mathur

  Sixtysix years after independence, India continues to be a country with widespread poverty and backwardness and finds a place only at the bottom of the development index in the international league of nations. The euphoria generated at the time of independence, when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru proclaimed that ‘India is waking up to life and freedom’ and ‘the soul of nation will find utterance’, has disappeared. The national mood today is of pessimism, frustration and anger. Corruption is eating (…)

• A Narrative in Progress

  28 January 2014, by Uttam Sen

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  Swaraj by Arvind Kejriwal; Harper Collins publishers India, New Delhi; 2012.
  This is a narrative that goes to the root of the national predicament. The common man, his agrarian background and marginalisation, are the points of departure for any conventional inquiry into public policy in India. Swaraj, self-governance, was the rallying cry for restoring his place in the sun during the freedom struggle. The author promises (in desire and deed) to discharge the role of (…)

• If AAP Fails, Another will Take its Place because Old Parties have Betrayed India

  28 January 2014, by T J S George

  Sharks and piranhas famously go into a feeding frenzy when they suddenly see an abundance of prey. Turning crazy with rage, they tear into the flesh of anything within biting range. Something similar is happening among opponents of the Aam Aadmi Party. Even liberal intellectuals are in a frenzy to feed on the new party’s weaknesses, ignoring the larger picture. AAP is easy prey to all. (Notice that the frenzied feeders avoid difficult prey. Hardly any fulminations against UP’s Ministers who (…)

• Daunting Scene, Hopeful Signs

  29 December 2013, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  After having crossed half-a-century of its chequered existence last year, this journal is now entering its fiftysecond year at a time when the scenario around us has turned out to be more daunting than before. And yet there are unmistakable signs of hope in the midst of gloom.
  Why was this weekly launched in 1962? In its first issue itself it was explained in the editorial that while “faith in the people of India is our shield and armour” and “determination to resist all (…)

• Fifty Years Ago: Indian Women’s Demonstration in Pretoria on Human Rights Day 1963

  29 December 2013

  by E.S. Reddy
  Introduction
  Fifty years ago, on December 10, 1963, police unleashed dogs against Indian women who came to Pretoria in a peaceful demonstration to present a petition to the South African Government against the Group Areas Act.
  People in South Africa were perhaps too preoccupied to pay sufficient attention to this crime of the apartheid regime—two months after Nelson Mandela and other leaders of the people were charged in the Rivonia Trial. There was no international (…)

• Lesson from the Last of the Trimurthis: Only the Selfless reach Greatness

  29 December 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Like M.K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela marked his century with his imprint. While each of them played a seminal role in the shaping of his country’s history, all of them transcended their national confines to become statesmanly figures honoured around the world. Gandhi and King were felled by bullets of intolerance. Mandela remained a beloved figure without, as it were, a foe. Flights of angels sang him to his rest.
  Mandela had his woes. Married thrice, his (…)