Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Editorial - All in the Name of God | Papri Sri Raman

  12 July 2024, by Papri Sen Sri Raman

  My NRI brother sent me a cryptic message from Boston last week, ‘Hathras-e Hahakar’. Of course, he could not resist the Bengali propensity for assonance. And he did not like my answer. This is India, land of the devout. The country is headed by a godman who claims non-biological birth. The State of Uttar Pradesh is ruled by a ‘saffron-clad yogi’, Adityanath, from the Gorakhpur sect. The 121 deaths in a stampede at a ‘satsang’ are not considered deaths by the administrations here. It is (…)

• Everything Jaise Tha | JP Gadkari

  12 July 2024, by J P Gadkari

  July 9, 2024
  With a brief formal session of Parliament for declaring open the 18th Lok Sabha and the President addressing its first session and the election of Speaker being over, it has become clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his well-known arrogance is treating everything as it was prior to 2024 election and behaving as if nothing has changed.
  Earlier, after getting himself elected as leader of NDA and his own legislature party, Modi got himself sworn in as Prime Minister (…)

• First session of the 18th Lok Sabha: A Critical Analysis | P. S. Jayaramu

  12 July 2024, by P S Jayaramu

  July 9 2024
  The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha ended a few days ago. Led by the Prime Minister, the Treasury benches were combative from the very beginning, indicating that they had learnt nothing from the drubbing they received by the wise and mature electorate. The Opposition, which after ten long years has an impressive strength in the Lok Sabha, was determined to take on the Government aggressively. I intend making a critical analysis of how the Government and the Opposition (…)

• Northeast India’s battle against drugs | Sajal Nag

  12 July 2024

  July 2, 2024
  The drug menace in India’s northeastern states has major implications for the country’s external and internal security.
  When deadly ethnic clashes erupted in Manipur in India’s northeast frontier with Myanmar in May 2023, it was attributed to one group’s demands for recognition as a constitutionally-mandated Scheduled Tribe.
  Soon, large swathes of the state were engulfed in the violence. Almost a year after the first killings last summer, the total death count stood at (…)

• Emergency 1975: Some unknown facts | L.S. Herdenia

  12 July 2024, by L. S. Herdenia

  July 8, 2024
  While observing fiftieth year of the imposition of emergency it is not mentioned that the constitution has empowered the Union government to impose three types of emergency if the situation warrants. They are if the country is facing aggression, internal emergency and financial emergency. Then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi in the best of her wisdom must have thought that the country should be put under emergency.
  There is no doubt that the country was facing severe (…)

• A personal tribute to Karamat Ali (19 August 1945 - 20 June 2024) | Mandira Nayar

  12 July 2024

  A journalist in India remembers a Pakistani peace activist who brought home her late grandfather’s ashes
  Karamat Ali was many things but for me he was always the person who returned my grandfather Kuldip Nayar to the home he was born in. The relationship between him and my grandfather defies labels but it has a bond that is deep and unbreakable, stronger than many relationships with names.
  There are many words for friendship. Arabic has twelve. You can choose from friendships of (…)

• Commemorating Che Guevara’s historic visit to India-65 years ago! | Chaman Lal

  12 July 2024, by Chaman Lal

  *
  I admire Cuban revolution of 1st January 1959, led by Fidel Castro as one of the most unique revolutions of world history, where just 82 determined revolutionaries, sailing from Mexico on the ship Granma, made the historic revolution with the support of Cuban peasants and workers, against very powerful army of dictator Batista. Out of 82, only about 15 had survived after the brutal attack of Batista forces, but these fifteen in the course of just two and half years organised army of (…)

• Christians and the Political landscape in India | John Dayal

  12 July 2024, by John Dayal

  We don’t matter in numbers, but did we did even try set the discourse
  There will possibly be at least 15 Christians in the Lok Sabha’s 543 members elected in the 2024 General elections.
  At 2.3 % of the national population, the Christian MPs will be about 2.7% of the newly constituted Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Parliament.
  They could even be a little more, because not every name can be identified easily by religion. Some don’t identify themselves as belonging to a religion - even if (…)

• 2024 General Election - Representation of Dalits | Arun Srivastava

  12 July 2024

  For the first time in electoral history the Lok Sabha election underlined Dalit’s determination and zeal to get political recognition
  The 2024 Lok Sabha election will be remembered for two major reasons; first, it protected Dalits from losing their identity and second, prevented India from becoming the Hindu Rashtra. The electoral battle of 2024 has also a very consequential aspect: it stoked the apparition of the peasant struggle of late sixties and inspired the old comrades of (…)

• Letter to Prime Minister Modi to form a dedicated cell to help Indian citizens abroad or citizens travelling abroad | D Raja

  12 July 2024, by D Raja

  Communist Party of India
  New Delhi,
  July 10, 2024
  To,
  Shri Narendra Modi,
  Hon’ble Prime Minister,
  Government of India,
  South Block, New Delhi.
  Sub: Request to form a dedicated cell to help Indian citizens abroad or citizens travelling abroad
  Respected Prime Minister Modi ji,
  The number of Indian students studying abroad as well as Indians working outside India have increased significantly. Similarly, the number of Indians travelling abroad for various purposes has also (…)