Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Prevent Government takeover of Gandhian Institutions - Public Statement by concerned citizens

  7 August 2021

  [concerned citizens oppose a Government takeover of the Sabarmati Ashram]
  The Ashram
  Gandhi’s Ashram at Ahmedabad, known as Sabarmati Ashram, is an unusual monument of international importance. It was Gandhi’s home from 1917 to 1930. He led the famous Dandi March from the Ashram and pledged not to return to the Ashram until independence was attained.
  After the salt march, Gandhiji disbanded the Ashram as a part of the freedom struggle in 1933. After Independence Gandhi’s associates and (…)

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  First-year completion of NEP - Statement by All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation - Aug 2, 2021

  7 August 2021

  All India Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (AIFUCTO)
  Press Release
  Patna:
  02.08.2021
  Prime Minister address to the nation on the first-year completion of NEP ignored ground realities
  Prime Minister’s address to the nation and launching some new initiatives on the occasion of first-year completion of NEP marked a complete divorce from ground realities of our education system. The pompous assertion of NEP being an instrument of strengthening the concept (…)

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  ABC Regulation 2021, a push towards Blended Learning Mode, will lead to dilution of degrees | DUTA Press Release, July 29, 2021

  7 August 2021

  DUTA Press Release, 29.7.2021
  As part of his address to the nation on National Education Policy 2020, the PM today has launched Academic Bank of Credit (ABC), yet another NEP recommendation. The ABC Regulations intend to give impetus to Blended Learning Mode, allowing students to earn credits from various HEIs registered under this scheme and through SWAYAM, an online repository of courses. The student can earn up to 50% credits from outside the college/university where she/he is enrolled (…)

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  Table of Contents, Mainstream, July 31, 2021

  30 July 2021

  * The Assam-Mizoram Border Clash | Barun Das Gupta
  * Pegasus – obfuscating the obvious | Upal Chakraborty
  * One dream, different dreaming | Ash Narain Roy
  * Marx in the MEGA | Pradip Baksi

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, July 31, 2021

  30 July 2021

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, July 31, 2021
  Frequent events of extreme weather are likely to be the norm now and the tipping point in the climate crisis seems to be approaching …. Globally, land temperatures are about 1.2C hotter than in pre-industrial times. Governments are supposed to meet in November 2021 in Glasgow, at the Cop26 UN climate summit, to talk ways of preventing the world from heating by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Consultants from Climate change (…)

• The Assam-Mizoram Border Clash | Barun Das Gupta

  30 July 2021, by Barun Das Gupta

  The death of seven Assam policemen in armed clashes with the Mizoram police on July 26 is deplorable. Assam has “border disputes” with Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram for a long time. This time, according to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the clash with the Mizo police ensued when the Assam police tried to prevent the encroachment of land by the Mizos in the reserved forests of the contiguous region of Barak Valley of Assam. The CM said that there was no “politics” in it. The (…)

• Pegasus — obfuscating the obvious | Upal Chakraborty

  30 July 2021, by Upal Chakraborty

  by Upal Chakraborty *
  The ’Pegasus’ spyware was conceived as a Trojan horse with soldiers sitting stealthily inside, ready to strike at the earliest opportunity. Conceived, developed and marketed by the NSO Group of Israel, it has, in reality, no horses or soldiers but is a piece of code sitting inside one’s phone

• Apology, remembrance, and the challenge of numbers | John Dayal

  30 July 2021, by John Dayal

  Rashtriya Janata Dal member Prof Manoj Kumar Jha’s eyes seemed swollen with unshed tears as he rose to speak in the Rajya Sabha in a short notice question this week.
  “Never before in the history of parliament has there been an obituary reference between two sessions of the House to as many as 50 sitting and past members who have passed away,” he said referring to the mandatory respectful statement that is read out by the presiding officer at the start of a new session. Prof Jha, who (…)

• One dream, different dreaming | Ash Narain Roy

  30 July 2021

  by Ash Narain Roy
  Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir visited Cuba only months after the January 1, 1959 Cuban Revolution celebrated its first anniversary. Fidel Castro wined and dined the intellectual power couple of the 20th century during their stay in the island-nation. Sartre wrote about Castro’s revolution saying, “for the first time in our lives, we were witnessing happiness that had been attained by violence.”
  Sartre was rebuked by many as a “fellow traveller” for his lavish (…)

• Some Remarks about Movements | Ravi Sinha

  30 July 2021

  by Ravi Sinha
  Accountability is foundational to democracy and, ultimately, people are supposed take those in power to account through democratic processes and mechanisms. But, then, we also know what often happens in democracy. Electoral competition gives rise to ‘technologies’ (often religious, cultural and identity-based) which turn citizens into “Bhakts” (devotees) and storm-troopers (remember Hitler’s “Brownshirts”). The dark side of democracy comes on top more often than the other (…)