Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Loosing sleep | A documentary film by Thierry Robert

  2 April 2021
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  Table of Contents, Mainstream, Mar 27, 2021

  26 March 2021

  * Declining Female Work Participation in India | Samantroy, Sarkar, Pradhan
  * 2021 Bengal Assembly Elections Implications for National Politics | PS Jayaramu
  * No Bharat Ratna for Ram Manohar Lohia, Please! | Prem Singh
  * Thank the left for the right | Jawed Naqvi
  * We have two Indias - One is dirt poor, The other is filthy rich | TJS George
  * Odisha Assembly Marks Centenary of Gandhi’s 1st Visit to the State | S N Sahu
  * Looming Climate Crisis, What Are India’s Pledges & Actions? | Soumya Dutta

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Mar 27, 2021

  26 March 2021

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, March 27, 2021
  Political campaigning is in full swing for the assembly elections in many states in India. Among the largest of these states in terms of the size of the electorate is West Bengal; Here a very creative citizens campaign by artists, writers, filmmakers has made its presence felt through a powerful message not seeking vote but celebrating an India that is empathetic, and opposed to all forms of violence and hate.
  Across the border in (…)

• Declining Female Work Participation in India: What does the Periodic Labour Force Survey Tell Us? | Samantroy, Sarkar, Pradhan

  26 March 2021

  by Ellina Samantroy*, Kingshuk Sarkar** and Sanjib Pradhan***
  Abstract
  The paper is based on highlights from the Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS) on female labour force participation. The paper has also used the quinquennial rounds of the Employment and Unemployment Surveys. Women’s participation in the workforce has been continuously declining since 2004-05 though a marginal increase was reported in PLFS 2018-19 with a corresponding increase in self-employment. In this context, (…)

• 2021 West Bengal Assembly Elections and its implications for national politics | P S Jayaramu

  26 March 2021, by P S Jayaramu

  by P. S. Jayaramu
  An attempt is made here to understand the significance of the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal and the possible implications of its outcome on national politics. Since the analysis is about ongoing events in an extremely fluid and dynamic environment, the prognosis is also necessarily tentative.
  Assembly Elections: The Setting
  Amidst the second wave of the Covid 19 pandemic, the Country is poised for Assembly Elections in the four States of West Bengal, (…)

• Narendra Modi versus West Bengal electorate - Will India’s Election Czar Play Neutral? | Sankar Ray

  26 March 2021

  by Sankar Ray
  Is the Election Commission of India, headed by Sunil Arora, surreptitiously working to help Bharatiya Janata Party win the West Bengal Assembly election whose first of eight-phase polling will begin on 27 March? Arora, a 1980 batch Indian Administrative Officer of Rajasthan cadre is former Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Airlines and a Secretary in the Ministry of Information and broadcasting, he rose up in career during the prime ministerial tenure of Atal Bihari (…)

• Gandhi and our Troubled Times - Some Reflections on the Context, Challenges and Relevance | Karli Srinivasulu

  26 March 2021, by Karli Srinivasulu

  The Dickensian statement ‘It was the best of the times, it was the worst of the times’, with which his classic The Tale of Two Cities begins, captures the dominant predicament of our times. It is the worst of the times because we are at a historical stage where humans have apparently attained the power to inflict collective self-destruction through the instrumentalities of science and technology, state power and corporate greed. And this power has assumed such gigantic proportions that no (…)

• Modi’s Bangladesh Visit: Is It New Delhi’s New Foreign Policy Cohort | Majumdar and Nag

  26 March 2021

  by Ayush Majumdar and Dr. Gouri Sankar Nag *
  Cohort or facade is the deeper point at issue but what is prima facie undeniable is the hype in the atmosphere over Modi’s another well-calculated foreign policy move to visit Bangladesh on March 26 that meets three objectives at one go: taking part in the golden jubilee celebration of Bangladesh liberation (1971-2021), the centenary year of Bangabandhu Sk. Mujibur Rahman’s birthday (born on 17th March 1920) and 50 years of diplomatic relations (…)

• No Bharat Ratna for Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Please! | Prem Singh

  26 March 2021, by Prem Singh

  by Prem Singh
  Twenty third March is the birth anniversary of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia. In the events organized to mark this occasion demands are often made to the government for posthumous conferment of India’s highest civilian honour i.e. Bharat Ratna on Dr. Lohia. I anticipate that this year would be no different. In a brief commentary I authored in May 2018 a reference was made in it about this trend when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar placed this demand before President Ram Nath Kovind (…)

• Thank the left for the right | Jawed Naqvi

  26 March 2021

  by Jawed Naqvi*
  TRUTH be told, now that the left has lost its moorings across much of South Asia, it’s mainly the right wing that calls the shots in a big way. Who is lending hope to the fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India? Believe it or not, it’s the hard-line Hindu right Shiv Sena. Who is the head of the opposition alliance in Pakistan against Prime Minister Imran Khan? Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the man who opposed the women’s protection bill among his other regressive (…)