Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Jantar Mantar !! | Radhakanta Barik

  8 October, by Radhakanta Barik

  Modi has turned into social phenomenon where some living actors and non living actors work to sustain the phenomenon. Living actors like CBI chief ED chief, Police chief and EC chief. All these establish relationships to sustain such a phenomenon of Moditva. CBI chief faced mid night coup when his words did not work and he wanted to look into the file related to Air Force planes imported from France where a large scale corruption has got involved. In the mid night coup he was removed with (…)

• The CJP Phenomenon: Tracing The Trajectory and Mapping The Impacts | Sukla Sen

  8 October, by Sukla Sen

  ​Prologue
  ​Conservative British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan is said to have been once asked what he feared most and to have tersely replied: "Events, dear boy, events." This famous story, accurate or not, vividly brings out a very significant side of the way political developments take place. Even the best-laid plans of the mighty may, all of a sudden, get severely upset by the unscripted.
  ​Since the May 2014 mandate that brought the BJP to power, the new regime, all the (…)

• SIR Vote Chori: After three decades of voting, I went off the voter rolls! | M.R. Narayan Swamy

  8 October, by M R Narayan Swamy

  I did entertain some serious doubts about the efficacy of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of India’s electoral rolls when it began in Bihar. But I surmised, naively I now realise, that it would mostly affect the mass of poor who travel long distances for work and so would be “absent” when officials visit their homes.
  This was until I began following news reports of mass purges from voters’ lists in state after state. The ugly truth hit home hard when my own name disappeared from (…)

• With BJP backing and apex court nod Gyanesh Kumar will brazen it out | Faraz Ahmad

  8 October, by Faraz Ahmad

  It is now established beyond doubt that Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s act of depriving 13 crores Indian voters of their right to vote, simply to ensure a BJP government in state after state, was unilateral, patently illegal and unconstitutional because many of the decisions pertaining to the exercise of the Special Intensive Review (SIR), starting from Bihar to West Bengal to the rest of the country, lacked the necessary consent of the two other Election Commissioners, (…)

• Rising Partisanship Eroding Institutional Independence and Systemic Challenges | Arun Kumar

  8 October, by Arun Kumar

  India is facing widespread systemic challenges – in legislatures, judiciary, bureaucracy, police, educational institutions, religious places, safety of women, etc. These make citizen’s life difficult. This spreading malaise is caused by the fraying of institutional independence. If institutions do not work the way they should, they won’t deliver what they are supposed to and that impacts societal functioning and leads to disarray.
  Election Commission
  The latest example of institutional (…)

• On A Curious Case of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study | Arup Maharatna

  8 October, by Arup Maharatna

  Fortunately or unfortunately, in this concertedly imposed global age of AI, which we all are virtually forced to inhabit, writing up a thematic/topical essay does not require its author to set out with an introductory section or a brief background discussion on the topic, or issue, or the institution to be dealt with – thanks to AI, which instantly delivers a seemingly cogent introductory remarks on damn anything on earth with just a single click or touch on the universally accessible (…)

• Online spaces and real-world taboos - Why India needs education on reproductive health | Mohini Yadav

  8 October

  Women’s online voice - Postpartum shaming
  Today, Instagram and similar digital platforms are not just for entertainment or watching reels. Instead, they have become more informative spaces where women can easily share their thoughts, rights, feminist views and their opinions on public policy and social issues in our society. Women often cannot speak openly because of patriarchal rules, but these platforms act as a helpful tool for them to voice their minds. This is a very good thing (…)

• The New Poem | Sagari Chhabra

  8 October, by Sagari Chhabra

  I walked up the mountain so stolid, so whole, it spoke to my soul; ‘These rocks took aeons to create, must you generate dust and debris; for you are destroying the intrinsic foundation of my strength, with your blasted development’. Weary of the city’s heat I went to the river to soak my blistered feet; ‘My daughter, that dam has blocked my back-waters, they’ve drowned villages, temples and even the rich alluvial soil; must you foil the potters’ living; the villagers who grew their (…)

• Corporatisation of Healthcare Undermines Public Health | Arun Mitra

  8 October, by Arun Mitra

  The corporatisation of healthcare has led to exclusion of vast majority from the quality healthcare. There is need to build a public movement for health for all.
  The remarkable advances in evidence-based modern medicine have made life easier, reduced mortality and increased longevity. To ensure that these benefits reach all citizens, it is imperative that the State takes responsibility for providing healthcare to everyone. From the immediate post-Independence period until the early 1980s, (…)

• Skilling Up, Accessibility Down: The Contradiction at the Heart of Budget 2026’s Disability Agenda | Sanya Roy

  8 October

  For years, India’s disability budget has been read through a single lens: how much welfare cash reaches people with disabilities, and how little of it there is. Union Budget 2026-27 tries to change that conversation. Two new flagship schemes, the Divyangjan Kaushal Yojana and the Divyang Sahara Yojana, reframe disability spending as an investment in workers rather than a handout to dependents. It is a genuine philosophical shift. Whether the numbers back it up is a different question.
  The (…)