Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Nov 5, 2022

  4 November 2022

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Nov 5, 2022
  The Constitution of India treats all citizens on an equal footing and included in its ‘Directive Principles’ an important guidance exhorting the state to strive to bring a common law in the personal domain for all its citizens irrespective of differences of faith. Leading statesmen in the founding years of our republic Jawaharlal Nehru and B R Ambedkar had forcefully argued in favour of such a common secular law. But decades on matters related (…)

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  Ela Bhatt no more – AITUC sends its condolences [Nov 2, 2022]

  4 November 2022

  All India Trade Union Congress
  02nd November 2022
  All India Trade Union Congress sends its deepest condolences on the demise of Ela Bhatt, a Gandhian, labour rights activist and the founder of self employed Women’s Association (SEWA). She [was] 86 and remained actively associated with SEWA activities till very recently. Her death is a loss to the labour rights movement in India. AITUC dips its flag in salute and honour of Ela Bhatt and shares the agony of the bereaved members of her (…)

• Why Say No To Indian govt Approval to GM Mustard | Soma Marla

  4 November 2022, by Soma S. Marla

  Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, GOI (GEAC) has permitted on Oct.18 the environmental release of genetically-modified (GM) mustard. Being the first food crop, expert studies question the environmental, biosafety and human health risks associated with hasty government approval. Gory experience of GM cotton, which resulted in havoc and farmer suicides in cotton fields during the last decade and half only benefited Monsanto and other Agribussiness MNCs.
  What is GM mustard (…)

• Governance to stifle hate | Vikash Narain Rai

  4 November 2022

  by Vikash Narain Rai *
  Religion and nationalism may be touted as their sweet allies but it is the politics of hate that has all along defined the strident march of Hindutva forces to power. In this context, it is remarkable how the unprecedented crowd support to the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has consistently and successfully pitted Hindustan against Hate-istan. To an optimist, it is a point of no return. Really?
  Almost half way through the longest (…)

• RSS and BJP in a bind over the Bharat Jodo Yatra | Arun Srivastava

  4 November 2022

  by Arun Srivastava
  RSS leaders and Narendra Modi are not at all worried of rejuvenation and survival of Congress, it is the threat of Rahul Gandhi giving a new left of centre ideological line to the Congress that has really shaken their confidence in accomplishing their mission.
  Only a week back outlining the ideological structure of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi in the midst of Yatra in Telangana, said the ‘Hate project of RSS’ had not only weakened the country but was also antithetical to (…)

• Freebies and public policy imperatives: are they worth it? | Amrendu Kumar Singh

  4 November 2022

  by Amrendu Kumar Singh*
  Introduction
  ‘Freebies’ have always been part and parcel of India’s political economy of development, better known as ‘subsidies’ in the traditional sense when a large segment of society and public economy were often subsidised. However, with the introduction of market reforms since early nineties and ushering of liberalization, privatization and globalisation (LPG), many areas that were traditionally benefitting from the largesse in the name of subsidies came to (…)

• Life in peril / world of Gemini Ganesan | Humra Quraishi

  4 November 2022, by Humra Quraishi

  2 November 2022
  Human life in sheer peril!
  In the midst of shrill developmental promises by the politicians of the day, bridges are collapsing, structures tumbling-crumbling-falling apart, flood fury spreading havoc, poisonous gases leaking, men and women and children subjected to all possible violent attacks and tortures.
  In fact, last week we were once again reminded of those dark times when two young teenaged boys were tied to a vehicle in a particular locale in Madhya (…)

• Struggles for democracy in Southasia highlighted at the Fourth Asma Jahangir Conference | Abdullah Zahid with Beena Sarwar

  4 November 2022

  by Abdullah Zahid with Beena Sarwar The drama began well before the start of the Fourth Asma Jahangir Conference on ‘Crisis of Constitutionalism in South Asia’, held last weekend in Lahore.
  When Steven Butler of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) landed in Pakistan for the conference, he found himself detained for eight hours at the airport.
  Someone apparently forgot to inform the FIA, the Federal Investigation Agency that monitors airports, that Butler was no longer on the (…)

• Bio-Weapons Can Further Increase the Risks of On-Going World Crisis | Bharat Dogra

  4 November 2022, by Bharat Dogra

  The possibility of the use of nuclear weapons, intentional or on the basis of misunderstandings which can result in a situation of high-tensions and escalating tensions continuing for a long time, has been repeatedly and increasingly held out in recent times. In this context various scenarios have been presented by several eminent experts almost all of which reveal a very alarming situation of enormous destruction arising from it. Now in addition to this, the possibility of the use of (…)

• Far right: The significance of an umbrella concept | Andrea L P Pirro

  4 November 2022

  by Andrea L P Pirro *
  Abstract: This contribution makes the case for a shift in boundaries between the (populist) radical right and the extreme right, arguing for the systematic use of the term far right’. The significance of a deliberately generic but fundamentally meaningful concept such as far right is motivated by the growing links between illiberal-democratic (‘radical right’)and anti-democratic (‘extreme right’) collective actors. This begs considering the conceptual grounds for (…)