Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• His Undying Conviction in the Human Spirit and Global Good

  29 December 2013

  TRIBUTE
  I thank the President of the General Assembly for organising this ceremony.
  I extend a warm welcome to today’s special guests from many walks of life.
  Those guests include Mr Enuga Reddy, a retired staff member who was among the many UN Secretariat officials who played invaluable roles in the struggle against apartheid.
  We join in this global assembly to honour our era’s greatest ambassador for human dignity.
  Nelson Mandela was a human being with flaws and frailties like (…)

• Nelson Mandela: His Life, his Thoughts

  29 December 2013

  TRIBUTE
  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  Nelson Mandela was released from prison on February 11, 1990, a day of liberation of humanity. He had spent a long time in Robben Island. His life was full of struggles. At the age of only twentynine years in 1940, he participated in a strike with Oliver Tombo and helped to organise the ANC Youth League in 1944. His participation in the ‘M Plan’, development of underground cells from the ANC branches, was an important event as it gave a new dimension to (…)

• Victory in Delhi

  29 December 2013, by Badri Raina

  The performance of the Aam Aadmi Party in the just concluded Assembly elections in the Capital city of India has been, however you look at it, a phenomenal event, and very likely a watershed departure in the political culture of Indian democracy. Indeed, India’s Left parties must wonder at the circumstance that where they have failed election after election to make a dent in Delhi’s hitherto customary two-party political structure, a fledgling new force should have out of nowhere succeeded (…)

• Electoral Nightmares of an NGO

  29 December 2013

  by Arun Srivastava
  The former BJP chief, Nitin Gadkari, has described the Aam Aadmi Party as Right-wing Maoism. Probably through coining this phrase he intended to send the message across that the AAP was an anarchist organisation, as the Maoists are being described by them and other political parties. But sorry to say he is mistaken; in fact his attribution makes it clear that he does not know what Maoism is. Undoubtedly the AAP leadership would prefer to maintain distance from this (…)

• Behind AAP’s Bloodless Coup

  29 December 2013, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  If the deadline for filing this column wasn’t coming in the way, this Wednesday afternoon—the day I’m filing this column—I would have been at the AAP office in New Delhi’s Connaught Place. In fact, the last two days I have been in and around there.
  On Monday morning I boarded the Metro from Gurgaon to CP, then hopped into an auto to reach the AAP office on Hanuman Road. And as I’d got chatting with the auto driver—believe me, rickshawallahs and auto drivers are the best source of (…)

• The Politics of Exoneration

  29 December 2013

  by Vasundhara Sirnate
  In leading discussions today in newspapers, political campaigns and on television, most party spokespersons opposing Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate use one standard argument that revolves around condemning the post-Godhra communal violence in Gujarat in 2002. In response, the spokespersons of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its supporters on online forums respond: “What about 1984?” Both sides use this as a ploy. The Congress uses this ploy to (…)

• Statue of Unity: How the Varna Media is Loving It!

  29 December 2013, by Subhash Gatade

  The man who belonged to the whole country has now been abducted by Narendra Modi, a pracharak of the RSS, the communal organisation who the Sardar fought against throughout his life. ..The only purpose of the construction of the Sardar Patel statue which was declared by Narendra Modi after he was anointed as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate is to collect votes for the 2014 elections in the name of this leader of India’s freedom struggle. It is therefore a downright irony that the RSS (…)

• The Economic Chakravyuh — Who Will Bell the Cat?

  29 December 2013, by Kobad Ghandy

  This is another lengthy article Marxist-Maoist thinker Kobad Ghandy sent from Tihar Jail where he is still lodged; it was sent sometime ago but could not be used earlier on account of space constraints.
  There is panic in the air—a crashing rupee, falling growth rates and a spiralling current account deficit (CAD)! Black Friday (August 16) reflected the nervousness all around with the stock exchange falling four per cent, rupee declining to an all-time low over Rs 62 to the dollar, and gold (…)

• Reflections on GATT Debate | Economic Reforms: Need for Reappraisal

  29 December 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following lines, written by N.C. precisely twenty years ago, carry considerable relevance in the present scenario.
  Reflections on GATT Debate
  The storm over the government’s meek submission to the Dunkel Draft as now inscribed in the GATT has not really blown over. It has only subsided for the present. As per our Constitution, Parliament cannot prevent the government signing treaties, though ratification may be delayed for a very long time—or not ratified at (…)

• Deterioration of Indo-Pak Ties: Who is More to Blame?

  29 December 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly asked India to resume talks which had got snapped following the terrorists’ attack on Mumbai in November 2008. His brother, the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, has echoed the same sentiments during his visit to India’s Punjab a few days ago. His advice to both the countries was to engage in a dialogue to settle their issues since war is no longer an option.
  India’s External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid, too, has (…)