Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Nitish Kumar’s Political hoppings and the INDIA bloc | P S Jayaramu

  3 February 2024, by P S Jayaramu

  Nitish Kumar’s political hoppings and his resumption of the Chief Minister’s position for the 9th time with the support of the BJP is the hottest news in Indian politics after the consecration of the Ram Lalla temple in Ayodhya. Writings have emerged in the last few days about Nitish Kumar’s actions, some calling it abrupt, with some others saying it was in the offing for quite sometime, tracing it to the handshake he had with PM Modi at the G-20 summit meeting in New Delhi, where the ice (…)

• Hindutva Fascism and the Future of Indian Politics | Kobad Ghandy

  3 February 2024, by Kobad Ghandy

  (Paper Presented at a Conference in Trichy (Tamilnadu) on January 7th 2024)
  In much of India, Hindutva has got into the bloodstream of not only the middle classes but even of the lower classes/castes including sections of Dalits. Let alone left thought even the democratic thoughts of Ambedkar seem to be on the back burner. Whichever party is in power, even at the state level, they seem more involved in appeasing the Hindutva sentiment with soft Hindutva than countering it with democratic (…)

• The last game of weathercocks | Faraz Ahmad

  3 February 2024, by Faraz Ahmad

  What is common between Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Arif Mohammad Khan, late Ram Vilas Paswan and even Hemant Biswa Sarma, or former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda?
  One, that their hearts are full of vaulting ambition, never mind the limitations of their political constituency.
  Once Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad, the only one in this vast jungle of opportunist politicians, who has demonstrated political integrity, had called Paswan, “Mausam Vaigyanik” (Meteorological (…)

• Democratic fascism | Sukumaran C. V.

  3 February 2024, by Sukumaran C.V.

  Democracy has developed into an inclusive ideology by seperating faith/religion from the state. The founders of Indian democracy—Gandhi, Nehru and Azad—took special care not to be part of religious rituals and ceremonies in order to respect the diversity of the nation and not to hurt the nation’s unity in diversity. The state-sponsered pran pratishta ritual in Ayodhya seems to end the seperation of faith and state hurting the unity in diversity. To see the PM of democratic India in the (…)

• The inauguration of the Ram Mandir by the Prime Minister of the country has fateful implications for constitutional democracy | Vijay Kumar

  3 February 2024, by Vijay Kumar

  The framing of the Indian Constitution, whose 74th Anniversary was celebrated last week, was a watershed moment for modernity through the preambulatory promise of liberty, equality and fraternity and guarantee of social, economic and political justice. The framing of the Constitution marked complete rupture from the past. Part-III of the Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all citizens. Right to Religion is also guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution, but is subject (…)

• Consequential Takeaways of Ram Mandir Inauguration by the Prime Minister | Vijay Kumar

  3 February 2024, by Vijay Kumar

  The abnormally high level of hype and hoopla with which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi consecrated Lord Ram in Ayodhya on 22nd January, 2024 has upended many foundational concepts of constitutional and republican democracy, nay fundamental tenets of Hinduism. Enumerated hereinafter are the takeaways of the temple consecration ceremony :- The prayer is not silent communion between the Seeker and his God; the logical corollary is that prayer and silence are contradiction in terms. The act (…)

• A Last Flourish and Foofaraw before the Big Fight? | Papri Sri Raman

  3 February 2024, by Papri Sen Sri Raman

  Freud defines the ‘symbol’ as a comparison where the compared term disappears. If we compare, for example, a snake with a staff, when the compared object – the snake – is no longer specified, we only have the staff which could be a symbol for the snake (J Jones in The Meaning of Symbols in Psychoanalysis).
  I believe, we were witness to something akin on 22 January 2024, just four months before a nationwide general election that will give us our next government for five years, until 2029, (…)

• Finding Ram amidst the Chorus of Ram Temple | Preeti Chauhan

  3 February 2024

  Ram — The word uttered in pain and in veneration denotes the power of its healing magic. Something ethereal is there in this word as described by Sage Vashishth while naming Ram. The chanting of his name gave solace to millions not only in past Yugas but even in the modern world. And it is the making of modern India after Independence that Ram became the battleground for diametrically different visions of this great country.
  The divinity, deepness and simplicity of Ram seems to be lost in (…)

• Cracks in INDIA alliance — TMC to contest all 42 seats in West Bengal | Tarun Kumar Basu

  3 February 2024, by Tarun Kumar Basu

  Trinamool Supremo and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee says, that Congress has rejected TMC’s proposal to acknowledge two seats and also said that the fate of the all-India alliance will be decided after the LS poll. However, the TMC has decided at the meeting of the party’s senior leader with the Murshidabad district leadership to contest all 42 seats.
  Ms. Banerjee said "We had given a proposal which they refused from the beginning. That is why our party has decided that we (…)

• Shrinking Size of the Labor Ministry’s Budget is A Cause for Serious Concern | Bharat Dogra

  3 February 2024, by Bharat Dogra

  Many-sided initiatives for labor welfare are needed in India. Unemployment is a very serious problem and several initiatives for improving employment prospects are needed. Hence the budget of the Ministry of Labor and Employment must see an increasing trend.
  However in reality this has seen a declining trend in recent years. This is unfortunate as this creates a scarcity of resources at a time when more resources are needed for labor welfare and improving employment prospects.
  In 2021-22 (…)