Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Left‘s Exit: Notes for Consideration of All Concerned

  23 May 2009, by Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

  History, at times, is a cruel reminder. Twenty years ago, 1989 signalled the impending collapse of the Soviet Union, as the Berlin wall crashed. Two years thereafter, the year 1991, watched how the USSR, together with the regimes in Eastern Europe, crumbled. Are we going to witness a repeat of this scenario, 2009 marking the beginning and 2011, the year of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, being the probable year of the erasure of the Left from Indian politics? If this catastrophe is to (…)

• Overall Reality of Indian Democracy

  18 May 2009, by SC

  The elaborate poll exercise in the world’s largest democracy is over. With 62 per cent of the electorate turning out in the last, that is, fifth, phase of the polling for the 15th Lok Sabha, the average voting percentage of this year’s parliamentary elections happens to be around 57 which is slightly lower than the 58 per cent touched in the previous (2004) Lok Sabha polls. However, the fifth phase polling figure being provisional it is expected to be revised upwards in course of time, and (…)

• Open Letter to Sonia Gandhi

  18 May 2009, by V R Krishna Iyer

  The following is a letter by V.R. Krishna Iyer, the distinguished retired judge of the Supreme Court, to Sonia Gandhi on the current developments in Sri Lanka. Krishna Iyer has sent the letter to us for publication in this journal. We are carrying it for the benefit of our readers.
  Respected Madam Sonia Gandhi,
  I address this letter to you both in your capacity as the President of the most powerful party in the country with the longest national tradition and also as having a (…)

• Boycott Will Only Isolate The West

  18 May 2009, by Reshmi Kazi

  The walkout of European diplomats following the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations conference in Geneva disparaging Israel was a puerile act. The United States, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada, Israel and Australia had announced months earlier to boycott the gathering anticipating Iranian malevolence towards Israel. The high-level delegates’ decision to boycott the conference while the Iranian leader was delivering his speech is (…)

• Lok Sabha Election 2009: Emerging Trends in National Politics

  18 May 2009, by Kamala Prasad

  Three phases of the five-phase election are over. This extended period of suspense in ushering in a new government is a commentary on the deteriorating standard in political conduct. Barring areas seriously affected by extremism and cross-border terrorism there should hardly have been any need for large police deployment or deployment of Central observers. Political parties, their workers and even candidates have learnt to display conduct that has made elections an expensive exercise. (…)

• The People’s Mandate and After

  18 May 2009, by Surendra Mohan

  After the instability of the 1990s at the Central level, the present decade has brought about stability. However, the era of coalition politics has continued undisturbed since 1996. The two processes of kamandalisation, that is Hindutva, and Mandalisation or social justice, assert themselves off and on. While social justice has come theoretically to be accepted by all political parties, one of its prominent parts, that is, gender justice, has not been achieved at the level of Union and State (…)

• End of an Era

  18 May 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  What sort of government will emerge from the election for the new Lok Sabha? This is the obvious question that is uppermost in the minds not only of the political parties contesting this election but of the millions beyond who constitute this nation as a whole.
  Between the casting of the vote and the counting of the score, there is always an element of surprise, which will certainly be accentuated with the serious allegations of rigging on the very first day of the poll. And rigging, (…)

• Post-Election Scenario

  18 May 2009, by Bharat Dogra

  As no political party is expected to get close to winning a majority of seats on its own in these Lok Sabha elections, the political scene immediately after the election results have come in will be hectic and full of significance. It is important therefore to emphasise the priorities for these significant days:
  1. The deliberations for forming the next government should be conducted in a dignified and democratic way. There should be no corruption, or use of big money to buy loyalties; no (…)

• Protect the Centre

  18 May 2009, by Raj Kishore

  Hearty welcome to Prakash Karat. Even if it is a remote possibility that he will get what was once denied to Jyoti Basu, his name is music to my ears. I am no fan of the CPI-M brand of communism. Yet I would love Karat as the next Prime Minister. I sincerely hope that those who feverishly wish to protect the Centre will share this emotion.
  The ongoing Lok Sabha election has opened up many bizarre possibilities. It is for the first time that the post of the Prime Minister has occupied (…)

• Election time or tamasha time?

  18 May 2009, by Sunita Vakil

  Let’s face it. Every five years or even sooner we are subjected to a new circus called ‘’elections’’. Election time is mela time for politicians who have left no stone unturned to convert politics into a free-for-all political circus. Once on the electoral platform, they will do anything to shift focus from the real issues weighing on the voter’s minds. They will make funny speeches, raise heady slogans and make inflammatory and indecent remarks as a ploy to attract votes. We also see them (…)