Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• What People Expect in the Next Hundred Days

  13 June 2009, by Rajindar Sachar

  The parliamentary election result of 2009 has hopefully given a permanent burial to the politics of divisiveness, and religious bigotry. It is a warning to all that in India acceptance of politics of social inclusion and total equality of all religious groups, especially the minorities, are a pre-requisite to obtaining political power.
  The new government will naturally frame its policies in the light of these and equally important considerations for the people of India that is (…)

• UPA Must Change the Fate of Seven Hundred Million Downtrodden Indians

  13 June 2009, by Ravindra Sharma

  Post-Election 2009
  As the fragrance of the democratic festival is almost over, and Dr Manmohan Singh’s new team has taken oath on May 22, the verdict of Election 2009 must be analysed with all humility and objectivity to arrive at a meaningful conclusion. The well-wishers and proponents of Indian democracy must be happy to note the fact that a “teacher-turned-Prime Minister”, who has never contested any election, has became the champion of democracy and secularism. Certain points are worth (…)

• A Requiem for CPM

  13 June 2009, by Kripa Shankar

  The rout of Communists, particularly in West Bengal, is astounding. If after more than three decades of uninterrupted rule the Left Front has been rejected by the people it calls for serious introspection. Earlier the Congress was rejected and replaced by Communists when the former failed to live up to the expectations of the people. Now when people find that the Communists too have failed to live up to the expectations of the people they have no other option but to vote for the Congress as (…)

• General Election 2009—A Gentle Breeze of Change

  13 June 2009, by Sanjay Pulipaka

  The flavour of national politics in India seems to be changing. The performance of State governments and the nature of caste coalitions at the State level used to determine the election outcome of the parliamentary elections in India. Therefore, the verdict in the general elections used to be an aggregate of State level verdicts, which seems to be not the case with General Election 2009. This is not to say that State level issues are no longer important in determining the outcome of (…)

• The Left‘s Exit

  13 June 2009, by A K Biswas

  COMMUNICATION
  Prof Shobhanlal Datta Gupta’s excellent critique on the debacle in the parliamentary election 2009 of the ruling Left dispensation of 32 years in West Bengal (“The Left’s Exit: Notes for Consideration of All Concerned”, Mainstream, May 23, 2009), though comprehensive, leaves much kernel for consideration. There has been unanimity across the board that the Left Front’s drubbing is attributable to the swing of the Scheduled Castes, Tribes and minorities, particularly the (…)

• New Government, Economic Strategy and National Consensus

  13 June 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  By the time these lines appear, the general election results are expected to be out and the contours of a new government should be available. No matter who forms the new government some very urgent tasks would be facing it. Bereft of all the tub-thumping of electioneering, the leaders of all political parties would be confronted with some problems of immediate concern and these cannot be wished away. One of these is the direction of the economic reforms in the coming period.
  In the (…)

• Chhattisgarh Government’s Self-destructive Act

  13 June 2009, by Sandeep Pandey

  Akin to George Bush in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attack who, while declaring his war on terror, proclaimed that if one is not on the side of US Government then one is with the terrorists, the Chhattisgarh Government thinks that if one is not with the Salwa Judum, the state sponsored tribal militant group meant to counter the Naxalites, then one would be considered a sympathiser of the Maoists. Binayak Sen paid the price for criticising the Salwa Judum. Now, it the turn of (…)

• Binayak: A Tribute

  13 June 2009, by Badri Raina

  After two needless years in the slammer,
  you came out smiling, with a steady eye.
  You seemed not resentful, but calmer—
  frail in body, but in spirit high.
  The deadly inert of your calling
  so unshakeable in its cool,
  so wholly a stranger to self and fear,
  that governments may tear their regimented hair,
  they seem evermore the fool.
  Around so perfect faith as yours,
  systems can only be falling.
  You are no sprinter over the short span,
  but the horse for the long (…)

• Interim Report of Fact-finding Team on Developments in Chhattisgarh

  13 June 2009

  DOCUMENT
  An all-India fact-finding team visited Chhattisgarh from May 29 to June 1, 2009 in the wake of certain disturbing developments in the State plagued by Maoist violence, state terror, the Salwa Judum campaign and attacks on voluntary organisations (even Gandhian bodies) by the powers that be. The team visited the site of the demolished Vanvasi Chetna Ashram (VCA) at Kanwalnar near Dantewada and run by Himanshu Kumar, a noted Gandhian social activist working among the tribals in (…)

• Deras, Caste Conflicts and Recent Violence in Punjab

  13 June 2009, by Surinder Singh

  The recent violence in Punjab has taken place as a repercussion of the shootings in a Ravidass temple in Vienna in which the Dera Sachkhand head, Saint Niranjan Dass, was injured and his second- in-command, Saint Ramanand, was killed. This hurt the feelings of the followers of the Dera all over world. The Doaba region in particular was in flames for almost two days before the situation came under control following the appeal by the sants of the Dera.
  The present article is divided (…)