Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 17, 2024

  17 February 2024

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, February 17, 2024
  The news of the Supreme Court of India striking down the Electoral Bonds Scheme (EBS) has been widely welcomed as good for democracy and for transparency of funding of political parties. The not-for-profit entity Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were petitioners who had challenged the EBS — had maintained that electoral bonds were the "legalisation of political corruption” have done (…)

• Waiting to Become Eichmann? Unpacking the Moral Relativism of a People | Subhash Gatade

  17 February 2024, by Subhash Gatade

  “They took so much away from us that they ended up taking away our fear” Message scrawled on a placard in a women’s march in Spain
  ’How does Justice feel?’
  A difficult query to answer but perhaps Bilkis Bano would be the best person to respond to it.
  Yes the same Bilkis - survivor of a mass rape and the only witness to horrific massacre of her 14 relatives - when the state she lived witnessed a carnage when officially one thousand innocents perished in the communal pogrom and many (…)

• Playing Politics On Stage | L K Sharma

  17 February 2024, by L K Sharma

  All India’s a stage upon which the performer plays many parts. “The play’s the thing/ Wherein I’ll catch mass consciousness”, intones the hero. Gesturing vigorously, he makes his words come alive, giving them the desired meaning. He appears in traditional attire, accompanied by priests and supported by a prominent prop, be it Puja Thali or Sengol, sceptre representing righteousness. Showing the symbol of virtue makes up for the lack of virtue in politics. Vedic chants provide appropriate (…)

• Interim Budget 2024-2025: Focus on Individual Beneficiaries | Sher Singh Sangwan

  17 February 2024

  The Central Interim Budget 2024-25 is being analyzed based on the Budget Speech (BS) of the Finance Minister (FM) and major item-wise & scheme-wise allocations extracted from the Budget at Glance. Accordingly, it is analyzed under three sections.
  I. Budget Speech
  The BS is like an essay on the glorification of the Government’s performance since 2014-15. to quote FM, "The Indian economy has witnessed a profound positive transformation in the last ten years. The people of India are (…)

• Interim Budget 2024: An Estimate of Cherry-Picked Data Determined by Half Truth and Counter-Assertion | Nisha Mishra

  17 February 2024

  Ever since the Interim Budget laid by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament, the government and the opposition are leaving no stones unturned to acknowledge their achievements during their tenures.
  Amidst, the NDA led government applauding its achievements; the opposition released the “Black Paper” titled “Dus Saal Anyay Kaal (Ten Years of Injustices)” highlighting the issues of unemployment, inflation, subversion of institutions and instances of injustices (…)

• Violence in daily life is much more tragic than is commonly realized | Bharat Dogra

  17 February 2024, by Bharat Dogra

  Wars are commonly associated with the most fearsome violence. This is often true, but another reality that deserves more attention is that violence in daily life brings death, serious injury and other tragic consequences on a more massive scale and with continuity. Unlike in war there is generally no valor here, only cruelty; no heroes or patriots here, only victims and perpetrators.
  According to data released by the WHO, the number of children in the 2-17 age group who have suffered (…)

• Conjuring an illusion of prosperity | Sunil Ray

  17 February 2024, by Sunil Roy

  Introduction
  The “chariot of Trust” is now rolled out in the Indian Republic by the current political regime in power. It is claimed to be an unquestionable truth by the latter. Its influence on the economic historians of tomorrow may not be inconsequential unless chariot is thwarted. Till then, economic prosperity of the nation in all its likelihood will no way be different from what some say a ‘magical realism’. The magical realism takes a different route however unscientific it is, to (…)

• Targeting Muslim Religious Sites: A War Cry | Arup Kumar Sen

  17 February 2024, by Arup Kumar Sen

  On January 22, 2024, consecration ceremony of Ram temple at Ayodhya took place with fanfare under state patronage. This event was a turning point in accelerating the process of taking possession of Muslim religious sites by the champions of aggressive Hindutva politics in India.
  The new Ram temple was constructed at Ayodhya after getting possession of the temple site, following the Supreme Court verdict associated with the demolition of Babri Masjid. Now, after getting the order of the (…)

• Indian Muslims and Electoral Choices in 2024 | Ram Puniyani

  17 February 2024, by Ram Puniyani

  As the 2024 General Elections are looming on the horizon some Muslim elite are appealing to Muslim community to give a relook at BJP They claim that Indian Muslims are not being discriminated against. Such intellectuals also argue that BJP is giving special attention to Pasmanda Muslims and the Sufi Muslims. They also argue that Muslims are beneficiaries of BJP’s schemes for social welfare: food; housing; gas; water among others and lastly that there has been no major communal violence since (…)

• Of prisons and torture | Sukumaran C.V.

  17 February 2024, by Sukumaran C.V.

  White Torture: Interviews with Iranian Women Prisoners by Narges Mohammadi
  2023
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  When and how have prisons and torture originated among humans? What is the purpose of prisons in the so called civilized nations including ours? Prisons and torture mean nothing else but human right violations and both of them are there with us from time immemorial. Of course, the born-criminals and anti-social elements have to be imprisoned for the safety of the people who live peacefully. But the (…)