Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Durga’s Suspension, TMC’s Feat, Telangana

  3 August 2013, by SC

  Two major developments have caught national attention over the last few days.
  First came the suspension of a young IAS officer of the UP cadre, Durga Shakti Nagpal, the Gautam Buddh Nagar SDM, ostensibly on the ground that she had pulled down the wall of a mosque being built without clearance (an act that triggered communal tension in the area, according to the UP CM), whereas the general impression is that action was initiated against her for having found “visibly tackling illegal sand (…)

• To Talk about Austerity...!

  3 August 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The air is thick with talk about the economic crisis facing the country. The Finance Minister has called it “a grave economic crisis”. “We have not experienced anything similar in the history of independent India,” he has said.
  In Parliament, in newspaper offices, in the university campus, in Chambers of Commerce, the talk centres round the urgent need to borrow, to contract loans so that our economy could be sustained and the nation does not collapse under debts. (…)

• Mr Sen

  3 August 2013, by Badri Raina

  Dear Mr Sen, here is what you forgot:
  When a party of traders gives,
  It expects. Thus, Bharat Ratna
  Was bestowed on you by us
  Not because we thought you
  Were great shakes—who bigger
  And better than Golwalker ever—
  But so that you might hide
  The better part of your wisdom
  About Bharat and its travails,
  And begin to speak from our side.
  Clearly, that Nobel—a Western conspiracy—
  Turned your Leftist head, and even
  At Harvard—Subramaniam Swamy’s
  Pride—you felt (…)

• Quest for Telengana: A Charismatic Socio-Political Movement

  3 August 2013

  by Sreerupa Saha
  I
  Max Weber, universally acknowledged to be one of the three most important founding fathers of social science (the other two being Emile Durkheim and Karl Max), located the social change in the appearance and actions of charismatic leaders, as the other two types, traditional and rational/legal, were geared to system-maintenance. Weber characterised charismatic leaders as men of exemplary conduct and extraordinary endowments; to him, charisma was a quality attributable (…)

• The Blurred Lines

  3 August 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  The Congress has set a bad precedent. The party has combined two positions: one is that of party official spokesman and the other that of Minister’s for Information and Broadcasting. Both have different roles. The official spokesman defends the stand the party takes, right or wrong. The Minister for Information and Broad-casting is India’s spokesman, not that of one party. The first is nominated while the other is elected by the people.
  To mix the two is unfair to the occupant, who (…)

• Obama’s ‘Zero Option’ on AfPak is Viable

  3 August 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The Clausewitzean fog of war is thickening in the Hindu Kush. The New York Times reported recently that President Barack Obama is seriously considering a “zero option” for Afghanistan, namely, a total pullout of American troops by end-2014—lock, stock and barrel, as they say.
  Sounds incredible? Indeed, it may at this point, when Washington is reported to be in the final stages of negotiation for concluding a status of forces agreement [SOFA] with the Kabul Government to establish nine (…)

• Women in Resistance Struggles in Odisha

  3 August 2013

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  by Ranjana Padhi and Pramodini Pradhan
  One seldom gets to hear about women’s resistance in Odisha, be it in resistance literature or history or the discourse of the contemporary women’s movement. It is the redeeming figures of Rama Devi, Malati Choudhury or Annapurna Moharana that have been assigned an aura of respectability for their unique contribution in Odia society.1 Reverence is a catch, especially in a society steeped in feudal patriarchy. Therefore, we need to look (…)

• In Search of Pakistaniat

  3 August 2013

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Sajad Padder
  Pakistan—Unique Origins; Unique Destiny? by Javed Jabbar; publisher: National Book Foundation, Islamabad (Pakistan); 2011; pages: 246.
  The book “Pakistan—Unique Origins; Unique Destiny?” is written by Javed Jabbar, a former Senator of Pakistan. The book is divided into six parts. Barring the sixth part, which contains bibliography, all other parts are left with blank pages at the end for further information and feedback from the readers. The author’s aim (…)

• Law-breaking Law-makers are becoming a Serious Threat to our Democracy

  3 August 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  The Allahabad High Court recently banned caste-based public rallies, a core political gimmick in Uttar Pradesh. Within days the UP Public Service Commission announced a new reservation policy with caste-based quotas from the preliminary examination stage itself. This violated the spirit of not only the High Court’s order against caste rallies but also of the Supreme Court’s order capping reservation at 50 per cent.
  There was public commotion, some students took recourse to (…)

• Beyond Reasonable Doubt?: The Conviction of Shahzad Ahmad

  3 August 2013

  DOCUMENT
  The following are excerpts from a Report by the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association on the conviction of Shahzad Ahmad over the Batla House ‘encounter’ in which Inspector M.C. Sharma was fatally injured and subsequently breathed his last. The report was released to the press in New Delhi on July 31, 2013.
  The site map of L-18, Batla House, where an ‘encounter’ resulted in the death of Inspector M.C. Sharma and two young men, Atif Ameen and Md. Sajid. Flat Number 108, where (…)