Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Pre-Trial Arrest of Opposition Leaders in the Middle of General Election Disturbs the Rule of Electoral Game | Vijay Kumar

  23 March 2024, by Vijay Kumar

  Even though the mid-night arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, after the election process has already kicked in, was expected, yet it is unprecedented. The arrest of Kejriwal following earlier arrest of Hemant Soren, Chief Minister of Jharkhand, have fateful implications for Democracy Constitutionalism and Rule of Law.
  Being a Constitutional Scholar, the present writer would refrain from political commentary, and hence, this column is confined to the impact of the (…)

• Wokeism - the new whipping horse of India’s Hindutva Right & of the Global Right | Subhash Gatade

  23 March 2024, by Subhash Gatade

  The shrill voices of those who give orders Are full of fear like the squeakings of Piglets awaiting the butcher’s knife, as their fat arses Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs.... Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but The rulers too.—Bertolt Brecht
  The global right is ’terrified’ (at least that’s what it wants us to believe)
  We are being increasingly told that it has finally discovered what could prove to be its nemesis.
  Right from the likes of Donald Trump to the Indian (…)

• A Wedding at India’s Super Rich & the Question of Public Morality | Radhakanta Barik

  23 March 2024, by Radhakanta Barik

  CAPITALISM THRIVES ON public morality, as it brings workers and consumers to the capital, one to create the goods that gather capital, the other who purchases the goods in exchange of that capital. The wedding that we are talking about happened in the household of India’s richest man. One person charged Rs 74 crore to dance for an hour at this wedding. This was at the recent wedding of Mukesh Ambani’s son, Anant.
  Ambani stands for the capital which creates a relationship between industry (…)

• Devolution of Funds and North - South Divide | J P Gadkari

  23 March 2024, by J P Gadkari

  Last month, on 7th February, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his entire Cabinet staged a protest demonstration in the National Capital demanding Karnataka’s due share in the devolution of taxes collected by Centre as GST, cess and surcharges in the State. There has never been an instance of this kind in the history of Independent India where the Chief Minister of a State and his entire Cabinet had to come on the streets to demand what is due to their State legally and (…)

• People’s Health Manifesto Demands A Common Health System and Commitment of Much Higher Resources | Bharat Dogra

  23 March 2024, by Bharat Dogra

  While several concessions and isolated commitments are frequently announced before elections, what is often missing is a more comprehensive approach to the many-sided reform of various important development sectors. A recent attempt for making more comprehensive health sector reform the talking point at the start of the election season should therefore be welcomed.
  On March 21, the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) a coalition of health activists, experts, and organizations committed to the (…)

• Metamorphosis of Judicial Activism | Arup Kumar Sen

  23 March 2024, by Arup Kumar Sen

  In summing up the role of the Indian judiciary in post-Emergency years, the eminent scholar of Jurisprudence, S. P. Sathe observed: “Post-Emergency judicial activism was probably inspired by the Court’s realization that its elitist social image would not make it strong enough to withstand the future onslaught of a powerful political establishment. Therefore, consciously or unconsciously, the Court began moving in the direction of the people…it facilitated access to the courts by relaxing its (…)

• Hunger-strikers’ Demands (1929) | Bhagat Singh, B.K. Dutt

  23 March 2024

  Central Jail Lahore
  June 24, 1929
  WE, BHAGAT SINGH AND B.K. DUTT, WERE SENTENCED to life transportation in the Assembly Bomb Case, Delhi, on the 19th April, 1929. As long as we were undertrial prisoners in Delhi Jail, we were accorded a very good treatment from that jail to the Mianwali and Lahore Central Jails respectively, we wrote an application to the higher authorities asking for better diet and a few other facilities, and refused to take the jail diet.
  Our demands were as (…)

• Growing Spectre of Hate in University Campuses in India | Narender Nagarwal

  23 March 2024, by Narender Nagarwal

  The horrifying imagery of brutal assaults on innocent Muslim students in Gujarat University, Ahmedabad while they peacefully engage in their prayers is utterly gut-wrenching, enough to evoke profound anguish and outrage. It seems that Indian university campuses have become hubs for the expression of bigotry and sectarian conflicts in recent years. This horrible illustration involves the mob attack on international students who were offering Namaz in a hostel premises during the holy month (…)

• Banerjee Solo-Card in West Bengal: A Shrewd Move! | Nilofar Suhrawardy

  23 March 2024, by Nilofar Suhrawardy

  Indisposed for a few days because of “head injury,” Mamata Banerjee, also known as a firebrand leader, is not likely to remain quiet for long particularly at this crucial time, ahead of parliamentary elections. At present, she is the only woman chief minister in India. She is the also the first woman to hold this office in West Bengal from 2011, to return back to power in 2016 and 2021 assembly elections. Given that she has been literally immersed in the political field for more than four (…)

• If the Z.A. Bhutto trial could be declared unjust, why not Bhagat Singh? | Chaman Lal

  23 March 2024, by Chaman Lal

  The Pakistan Supreme Court recently ruled that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was unjustly tried and executed, A similar case to be made to re-open the trial of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, hanged in Lahore on 23 March 1931 - a story that continues to capture the attention of rights activists and researchers in India, Pakistan and the Southasian diaspora.