Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• ‘Shehzadas’ triumph over Shah and Shahenshah | Faraz Ahmad

  8 June 2024, by Faraz Ahmad

  During the just concluded two-and-a-half-month-long election campaign, ending 30 May, the star campaigner of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his second in command Amit Shah kept calling out derisively leading Opposition campaigners Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav ‘Shehzadas’ implying that they are there in politics by virtue of their pedigree and not on personal merit as politicians. Modi, of course avoided pejoratively addressing (…)

• The climb down of Humpty Dumpty what a relief! Democracy has survived in India | Vijay Kumar

  8 June 2024, by Vijay Kumar

  The failure of the BJP to secure majority on it’s own is an unmistakable pointer that communal and divisive politics of the party, taken to alarmingly toxic level by the venomous speeches of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, himself, has started giving diminishing return, and politics of vendetta by letting loose the investigating agencies against the opposition leaders is resoundingly rejected by the voters. Equally emphatic is the message from the voters that the authoritarian attempt to (…)

• Letter to the Prime Minister regarding removal of statues of Ambedkar, Gandhiji and Shivaji from the Parliament Premises | Binoy Viswam

  8 June 2024, by Binoy Viswam

  Binoy Viswam Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) 116, North Avenue New Delhi - 110 001
  Date: 6th June, 2024
  To,
  Respected Shri Narendra Modi ji,
  Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, Government of India
  I write this letter to you to protest another arbitrary and unilateral move made by your government concerning the infrastructure of the Parliament House building. It is being reported that the iconic statues of Gandhiji, Dr. Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Parliament House (…)

• Decoding the Momentous Significance of the Lok Sabha Elections Verdict, 2024 | Gilbert Sebastian

  8 June 2024, by Gilbert Sebastian

  Perhaps, the greatest thing that we can observe about the verdict in the Lok Sabha Elections, 2024 is that the popular mandate has safeguarded the Constitution of India. The campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP – Indian People’s Party) was clearly indicating that it wanted to get 400-plus i.e., a two-third majortiy in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament so that they could change the Constitution of India in the direction of a Hindu Rashtra, possibly in the (…)

• Vibrant India | Sukumaran C.V.

  8 June 2024, by Sukumaran C.V.

  The people of India taught Mr. Modi and team that they need better living conditions instead of temples and statues and Modi’s meaningless rhetoric. The most comic part of the entire election campaign was Mr. Modi himself uttering "Modi’s Guaranty" to the people gathered to hear him. He wanted to have 400 seats and the people gave him hardly 300 and showed that Nehruvian secular India is still strong enough to ward off religious/divisive politics.
  In his Tryst with Destiny speech delivered (…)

• Wah, what a grand fight the secular parties & the masses of the country gave to the right-wing forces! | Humra Quraishi

  8 June 2024, by Humra Quraishi

  6 June 2024 What a relief! Wah, what a grand fight the secular parties and the masses of the country gave to the right-wing fascist forces! Well done, committed leaders and the hundreds and thousands of men and women and teenagers who worked endlessly in this heat and dust …saving this land from the grasp of those who spoke of hateful divides in those hate-filled speeches!
  So much to offload. Foremost, with these election results coming in, it’s been great to realize that our fellow (…)

• “Modi-wave” Spells Electoral Setback for BJP! | Nilofar Suhrawardy

  8 June 2024, by Nilofar Suhrawardy

  Hype raised about the so-called “Modi-wave” has failed to help Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) return to power with a thumping majority. Besides, numerous “masks” donned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for parliamentary elections failed to have the needed electoral impact on voters as BJP has not won 272 seats in 543-member Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) to form the government on its own strength. Not too long ago, Modi was confident of returning to power with (…)

• Agenda Setting for the BJP-led NDA Government | P. S. Jayaramu

  8 June 2024, by P S Jayaramu

  June 5, 2024
  Results of tbe 18th Lok Sabha elections are out. The BJP has been chastened by the mature sovereign voters of India by denying it a majority. As the single largest party, it will head the NDA Coalition Government. Here is an attempt to set an agenda for the new government.
  Before getting down to the proposed agenda, a few words about the historic election that has gone by. This was an election which had many unique features. Let me recount some of them in the form of major (…)

• West Bengal Poll Verdict: Triumph of Populist Politics | Arup Kumar Sen

  8 June 2024, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party in power in West Bengal, has improved its score in Lok Sabha polls in 2024, compared to 2019 in terms of number of seats won, 29 seats out of 42 (in 2019, the party won 22 seats). The seats won by its main contender, the BJP, got reduced from 18 in 2019 to 12 in 2024. The percentage of votes won by the TMC also increased from 43.7 in 2019 to roughly 45.7 in 2024; on the other hand, percentage of votes garnered by the BJP came down from 40.6 in 2019 to (…)

• Modi’s Divine Status Washed Off | J P Gadkari

  8 June 2024, by J P Gadkari

  On 1st June 2024 evening, after ending his 45-hour ’Dhyanam’ (meditation), Narendra Modi had announced that he felt like the "Divine spirit" flowing in his body. Earlier, he had even claimed that his birth was not a biological one but a "Divine Incarnation" and that he was created specially to serve the cause of human welfare.
  He was making these declarations as various agencies were announcing the exit polls predicting a "400 par" and a comfortable third term for the Modi Govt. But (…)