Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• On Violation of Soni Sori’s Rights and giving President’s Gallantry Award to SP charged with Custodial Sexual Torture

  22 May 2012

  WOMEN’S GROUPS’ MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESIDENT
  The following is the memorandum submitted by women’s groups to President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on May 14, 2012 regarding violation of the rights of a tribal woman, Soni Sori, and opposing conferment of President’s Gallantry Awared on SP Ankit Garg facing allegations of custodial sexual torture on Soni Sori.
  Honourable President,
  We thank you for giving us an audience to personally convey to you our concerns, regarding the sexual torture, (…)

• Shankar: An Appreciation of The Cartoon Wizard

  22 May 2012, by Anees Chishti

  [The following piece on Shankar, the reputed cartoonist, appeared in Mainstream (May 1, 1965). Anees Chishti, the well-known veteran writer-cum-journalist, who then worked in this journal, wrote it at the suggestion of N.C. and it was quoted by Pothan Joseph. It is being reproduced precisely because Shankar is in the news these days, one of his cartoons used in an NCERT textbook having been withdrawn due to vociferous protests by MPs who charged him with “insulting” a Dalit icon in (…)

• Thousands on Dharna for a Universal Pension Scheme

  22 May 2012

  Thousands of people from various parts of the country, especially the southern and western States, converged at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for a five-day dharna (from May 7 to 11, 2012)—organised by the Pension Parishad (whose motive forces were Hamal Parishad President Baba Adhav and Aruna Roy of the MKSS)—to demand from the Union Government and Parliament a universal pension scheme. The detailed demands, projected by thes Pension Parishad, are: a Universal and non-contributory old-age (…)

• CBI on Advani, Hollande’s Win, Hillary Visit

  18 May 2012, by SC

  One of the noteworthy national events of the last few days has been the latest 30-page affidavit submitted by the CBI to the Supreme Court contending that not only should conspiracy charges against BJP leader L.K. Adavani not be dropped in the Babri Masjid demolition case, but he and other BJP as well as Hindu extremist leaders (like Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and Sadhvi Rithambara) must face trial alongwith the (…)

• Bringing Back What’s Ours

  18 May 2012, by Arun Kumar

  Statements by top government functionaries are usually expected to lead to clarity. However, the statement by the Central Bureau of Investigation Director on illegal money stashed abroad by Indians at the inauguration of the first Interpol Global Programme on Anti-Corruption and Asset Recovery in February has added confusion to a politically sensitive subject.
  The Director made three points. First, Indians hold an estimated $ 500 billion of illegal money abroad. Second, Indians are the (…)

• Can Democracy Survive Capitalism?

  18 May 2012, by Shyam Chand

  Another name of economics is political economy; hence it is very dangerous to leave it in the hands of economists, especially neo-liberal economists who in the name of free market advocate privatising and downsizing government functions.
  ‘For we all are capitalists now, are we not? These days the victory of the market over the state is quite taken for granted,’ wrote The Economist, September 20, 1997 (p. 17).
  The market theory of Adam Smith was grounded in carefully articulated fine (…)

• Search for a New President

  18 May 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  While the Central leaders maintained a studied reticence in talking to pressmen about Dr Zakir Husain’s successor until the late President’s funeral was over, one could hear the muffled whispers on the subject even as the VIPs drove into the cobbled courtyard of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on the fateful Saturday afternoon for Sri Giri’s investiture as the acting President.
  Those unversed in the realities of New Delhi’s politics regarded such talks as betraying indecent (…)

• ‘Reservations for Muslims is My Positive Contribution’

  18 May 2012

  Syed Shahabuddin, a former member of the Indian Foreign Service, is one of the most articulate Muslim politicians of independent India. He was also a Member of Parliament for sometime.
  This freewheeling interview poses all those questions which were never asked of him earlier and should facilitate historians in the future in understanding the dynamics of society and circumstances which helped breed a personality like him.
  Q. Generally, Muslim bureaucrats opt for pro-establishment (…)

• Militarising Minds, Hindutvaising the Nation

  18 May 2012, by Subhash Gatade

  SEVENTYFIVE YEARS OF BHONSALA MILITARY SCHOOL
  ..to bring about military regeneration of the Hindus and to fit Hindu youths for undertaking the entire responsibility for the defence of their motherland. to educate them in the ‘Sanatan Dharma’, and to train them “in the science and art of personal and national defence”
  —(aim of ‘Central Hindu Military Education Society’, NMML, Munje Papers, subject files, n 24, 1932-36)
  This training is meant for qualifying and fitting our boys for the (…)

• Isolating Muslims from Mainstream Banking

  18 May 2012

  COMMUNICATION
  The write up, ‘India needs Islamic banking for Inclusive Growth...: , by H. Abdur Raqeeb (Mainstream, Vol L, No 9, April 28, 2012) tries to cover up well-organised nefarious designs of Islamists in India in using banking as part of their agenda to advance the cause of ‘pan-Islamism’. These forces are committed to ensuring the hegemony of militant Islam or Wahabi Islam in India . The success of the secular nature of Indian polity and society is something they cannot swallow. (…)