Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Direct Tax Collections, Growing Disparity and Need for Redistribution | Arun Kumar

  1 June 2024, by Arun Kumar

  [rouge] ( This is a longer version of the article published in the Businessline on May 09, 2024, Titled ’Direct tax collections reflect disparities’ )rouge]
  CBDT has said that net direct tax collection has exceeded its target for 2023-24. It has increased 17.7% over last year and much faster than the income increase of about 9%. Analysis of these facts is important in the light of the contentious debate set in motion by the PM regarding redistribution of wealth in the economy.
  Trying to (…)

• Poem: The Scream | Murzban Jal

  1 June 2024

  I was one day Standing in a very long line No, No In a very, very, very long line I don’t know why I was standing In this very, very, very long line.
  I looked forwards and backwards And saw only a line A very, very, very long line Yes, Yes, a very, very, very long line.
  And then I looked sideward And I saw people lying on the roadside Lying down in a very, very, very long line Next to this very, very, very long line.
  I tapped the shoulder of the person Standing ahead of me And (…)

• India’s decade of democratic deficit | Avinash Kumar and Puja Rani

  1 June 2024

  May 23, 2924
  Parliamentary procedures have been tossed aside as an increasing number of laws are passed with little or no debate.
  It took decades of people’s struggles to establish India as a democratic state. The central democratic institution of this state is its parliament. In recent years, parliament’s role has been undermined by a government with a brute majority in the lower house, the Lok Sabha, culminating in a "democratic deficit" in its functioning.
  In August 2023, under the (…)

• Malady of ’Judicial Activism’ in West Bengal | Arup Kumar Sen

  1 June 2024, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Very recently, some untoward incidents took place in West Bengal in the political campaigns pertaining to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The former ’jurist’ and judge of the Calcutta High Court, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) immediately after his voluntary retirement, has been barred by the Election Commission of India (EC) for campaigning for 24 hours for uttering foul words against the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, in his (…)

• The Possible Electoral Outcome and its aftermath | P S Jayaramu

  1 June 2024, by P S Jayaramu

  May 28, 2024
  The mega elections to the 18th Lok Sabha will be concluded with the 7th phase of polling ending on the 1st of June. The country is treated to a flood of predictions about the possible outcome. The mainstream TV channels-English and regional language ones- euphemismistically described as the ‘ Godi Media’, ( they should have been described as the Modi media) are predicting a hattrick for the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government. However, it is worth noting that the Head of the (…)

• The Politics Of The Bicycle Lane | T. Vijayendra

  1 June 2024, by T. Vijayendra

  In recent years there is demand for bicycle lanes by a section of the bicycle community in India. It comes mainly from Metro cities and people who demand are also younger people who use fancy/professional bicycles and are members of various bicycle clubs. Ordinary people who use the standard/roadster/Bangla cycles do not appear to be part of this group and nor is there such a demand from smaller cities and towns. The ostensible reason given is the safety of the cyclist.
  However in our (…)

• 

  Review of Iqbal S. Hasnain’s Fault Lines In The Faith | P S Jayaramu

  1 June 2024

  [fond noir][fond blanc]BOOK REVIEWfond blanc]fond noir]
  __0__
  Fault Lines In The Faith: How events of 1979 shaped the Islamic World
  by Iqbal S. Hasnain
  Rupa
  2023 Pp 279, Price ₹395.
  __0__
  Iqbal Syed Hasnain, the author of this book, is a former Pro-Chancellor of Jamia Hamdard and former Vice Chancellor of Calicut University, besides the other assignments he handles. Hasnain has varied interests and the same can be discerned from his interests in Himalayan glaciers and climate (…)

• Say Yes To Me | Jeevesh Gupta

  1 June 2024

  Review of the movie Shrikant by Tushar Hiranandani
  Whether it was him getting trapped on a traffic crossing with no one ready to stop, on the verge of running over him and honking from all directions or being asked to beg or being treated as either god or a curse (on both ends of the social spectrum), Shrikant’s journey partially or fully represents every differently abled’s life in India. Rajkummar Rao plays Shrikant Bollant’s role tactfully and brings out every facet of a visually (…)

• Congress Government in Karnataka: One Year in Office & Future | J P Gadkari

  1 June 2024, by J P Gadkari

  May 24, 2025
  This week on Monday, the 20th May 2024, the Congress Govt in Karnataka has completed one year in office. In the Assembly elections held last year, the Congress had an unprecedented victory with 136 seats in the House of 224 and that had ended the 40% commission rule of BJP in the State.
  Its most important achievement was that of having fully implemented its five Guarantees in nine months of being in office which benefitted over 4.6 crores of people in the State. They (…)

• Post-Humanism: An Open-Ended Question To ‘Nature And Nurture’ | Sunita Samal

  1 June 2024, by Sunita Samal

  Abstract: Post-humanists tend to be futurists rather than focusing on the past as historians do. The most troublesome aspect for both is the existence of ‘stand-alone’ individuals of Enlightenment. For post-modernism, the revolution in science and technology will reach a stage when there is no distinction between technology and magic. Today, artificial intelligence is being dominated by every field of science without exception. Feminists’ critical interrogation gives importance to both (…)