Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Weak but sensible voices should be listened to in the path of democracy | Prem Singh

  1 June 2024, by Prem Singh

  I have been living in Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh, for the past one month. In my general conversations with many people living in Shimla from different parts of Himachal Pradesh, there has been some discussion about the Lok Sabha elections also. The election is to be held in the last phase on four Lok Sabha seats here. One day five-six BJP workers came to my house in Summerhill. As soon as I opened the door, a senior worker among them said, ’We have come for Modiji . . .’ I (…)

• BJP’s electoral strategy: its inner contradictions could lead to its failure in 2024 | Pritam Singh

  1 June 2024, by Pritam Singh

  As the seventh phase of India’s 2024 General Election gets underway, the emerging political scene in the country is throwing signals of inner contradictions in the Modi-led BJP’s strategy that had proved electorally successful in 2014 and 2019. The key aspect of this contradiction is that what led this strategy to succeed in the past is precisely what may lead to its failure in 2024.
  It is likely to appear counterintuitive to say that a success can be the cause of failure. The view that (…)

• The Mighty BJP vs the Lackluster Congress: Observations on Elections in Himachal Pradesh | Rohit Kumar and Kavita Sharma

  1 June 2024

  Abstract
  The bipolar contest (BJP and Congress being the sole contenders in the state) has become sufficiently interesting due to the simultaneous elections for four Lok Sabha (LS) seats and six Assembly Constituency (AC) seats in Himachal Pradesh, in light of the six Congress MLAs who cross-voted for the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls and subsequently left the party. The primary variables that can affect the parties’ performance in these elections are the BJP’s dominance in the (…)

• His Holiness Lord Narendra Modi’s Penance | JP Gadkari

  1 June 2024, by J P Gadkari

  May 29, 2025
  In order to perpetuate and strengthen his recently self-acquired image as ’Godman’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to sit in a 45-hour meditation at the off-shore rock memorial of Swami Vivekanand at Kanyakumari.
  Look at the timings. It is from the evening of 30 May when the campaigns for the 7th and last phase of the election comes to a close to the 1st June 2024 evening when the exit poll analysis would start coming on TV screens.
  Is the meditation planned as a (…)

• Narendra Modi, Authoritarianism and ‘God Complex’ | Ram Puniyani

  1 June 2024, by Ram Puniyani

  Democracy is a system of society won after long and intense struggles. The preceding society had mostly Kingdoms. A typical kingdom was an alliance between the Feudal lord-King and clergy. While clergy was representative of the religious power, the king was presented as the son of God whose decisions and actions had the sanction of clergy. Clergy very cleverly cultivated the concept of Heaven (Swarga, Jannat) and hell (Narak, Jahannum). Those obeying to the king-clergy combo were doing (…)

• 2024 Indian Parliamentary Elections: Structures Beneath the Surface, ‘Choreographic Occultation’ and Authoritarian Personality | Neshat Quaiser

  1 June 2024, by Neshat Quaiser

  This article examines some of the crucial issues in the 2024 Indian parliamentary elections and their theoretical underpinnings. The article is divided into seven sections: Introduction; Key Issues: Constitution, Religious Harmony, Promises and counter-promises; Sanctity of Written Words and Congress Party’s Constitutional Raison-Detre; Communal Occultation and the rise of an Authoritarian Personality; From Authoritarian Personality to Politically Monotheistic Authoritarian State; (…)

• The Fantastic Marionette (WiP) | Papri Sen Sri Raman

  1 June 2024, by Papri Sen Sri Raman

  l
  If it was not for my friend Vlad who came up with this fantastic illustration as soon as I floated this idea of writing fantasy, perhaps this piece of imagination would not have seen the light of day.
  At least three people in theatre let the ball drop two years ago when I began writing… they did not say they were afraid, they said my story was incomplete. Vlad got the idea after reading just a few paragraphs, knowing that in my country, a land of million kings, the kings always had (…)

• An Anti-War Statement by Soldiers that is Inspiring for Peace Activists | Bharat Dogra

  1 June 2024, by Bharat Dogra

  Members of Veterans for Peace have recently released a Memorial Day statement which will be remembered for a long time as a strong indictment of war by those who have realized the truth about war the hard way through real-life experiences. Each word they speak has many difficult to heal, hard to forget experiences behind it, and so should be regarded very carefully by all those who are concerned about this most important issue of war and peace.
  In very moving words this statement says (…)

• Meditation As An Act of Public Spectacle | Vijay Kumar

  1 June 2024, by Vijay Kumar

  Every day we learn and, in the process of learning, unlearn also. The Prime Minister Modi’s ongoing meditation in Vivekananda Rock Memorial, situated in Confluence of Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea and the origin point of Indian Ocean, Kanyakumari, has drastically altered the meaning, concept and ethos of meditation. I have understood all along that meditation is sublime form of communion between mediator and either his/her inner-self (for agnostic) or some higher power (for believers) and (…)

• The Left in Spain: An Overview | Martin Alonso Zarza

  1 June 2024, by Martin Alonso Zarza

  To give an impressionistic view of the Spanish left, I will organise my presentation in three sections: the historical legacy, the territorial organisation and party system, and the current map.
  a. The historical legacy
  1. There are three significant aspects, albeit different in the scale of the consequences, in Spanish history in the cycle opened in Europe by the Second World War. A few days ago, the UN reprimanded Spain for the ’concord’ laws passed in the territories (autonomous (…)