Mainstream Weekly

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• Karnataka Legislative Assembly: More representative, but less effective functionally | P. S. Jayaramu

  20 February 2021

  by P. S. Jayaramu
  An attempt is made in this article to analyse two important aspects of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly( KLA), firstly, how representative it has been over the decades and secondly, how effective its functioning has been.
  Before getting down to tracing the representative character of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, it is pertinent to make a few observations about the importance of representative assemblies and elected representatives in a Parliamentary democratic (…)

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  Jata Shankar Jha (1926-2021): An Obituary of a Historian | Mohd Hussain Ganie

  20 February 2021

  by Mohd Hussain Ganie *
  Jata Shankar Jha (1926-2021), one of the eminent historians produced by Bihar, passed away on Thursday, 4 February, 2021. His death is indeed a great loss to the academic world. He was born in a village in Rajnagar, (Madhubani), on 22 August, 1926. After completing Masters and PhD in history, Jha started his career with K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute and retired from the same Institute as its Director in 1984. During his long association with the Institute, he (…)

• Disha Ravi‘s Arrest: Foreboding of Authoritarian Tide | Vijay Kumar

  20 February 2021

  The arbitrary arrest of Disha Ravi, young lady and an Environmental activist from her residence in Bengaluru on February 14 on trumped up charge and in utter violation of procedure prescribed under the Code of Criminal Procedure and the mandate of Article 22 of the Constitution marks the sharp descent of Indian democracy into authoritarian regime. The democratic credential of Modi Government was always in short-supply, but arrest of 22 years young lady for extending support to on-going (…)

• Remembering Frontier Gandhi / Disaster in Uttarakhand

  20 February 2021, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  February 10, 2021
  February 6 was Khan Abdul Ghaffar’s Khan birth anniversary; he was born on 6 February 1890, in Utmanzai, Pakistan. Also, known as the Frontier Gandhi, he played a very, very significant role in the Independence struggle. Needless to add that today, with the changing political climate, he and his struggles get bypassed, if not side tracked.
  Few years back, Delhi based activist, Faisal Khan, had formed the ‘Khudai Khidmatgars’ (Servants of God), in memory of (…)

• A meeting with farmers that changed Nehru | Naved Ashrafi

  20 February 2021

  by Naved Ashrafi
  More than two years back exactly from these days when farmers have now inched their way towards the national capital of India vociferously protesting against new farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while campaigning for the upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan in 2018, said that a Congress leader used to wear a rose on his jacket but had no knowledge of farming. Modi didn’t name Jawaharlal Nehru. He has always been quick at peremptorily hurling political jibes (…)

• Assam’s 2020 Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Election: a Fractured Verdict | Nurul Hassan

  20 February 2021

  by Nurul Hassan *
  The high voltage 2020 Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election has witnessed a triangular contest among the candidates of Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was an opportunity for most of the political parties in Assam to substantiate their existential strength on the eve of next Assembly election. The verdict was neither directly based on identity politics nor promulgating ideologies but has changed (…)

• India’s forever wars and forever warriors | MK Bhadrakumar

  20 February 2021, by M K Bhadrakumar

  February 19, 2021
  The Washington-based Quincy Institute, arguably the most intellectually stimulating American think tank nowadays, in its compulsively readable publication Responsible Statecraft featured on Tuesday an investigative report titled Weapons biz bankrolls experts pushing to extend Afghan War, authored by Eli Clifton, noted expert and journalist on US foreign policy.
  It was an expose of the interest groups that dominate the narratives on America’s ‘forever wars’. Clifton made (…)

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  You can speak up . . .

  20 February 2021, by Sagari Chhabra

• Thickness of Skin! | A K Das

  20 February 2021

  [This poem is composed in the backdrop of interviews given by victims of casual molestation and reported in an article ’How men get away with groping, and women never quite get over it’ published in The Times of India (January 31, 2021)]
  Groping without disrobing
  is not an assault carnal.
  It’s not a big deal!
  The voice from the Altar decrees.
  Walking, cycling, standing,
  or sitting next in the bus,
  train, aircraft are prices
  to be paid, while growing up
  in all avenues of life. (…)

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  Against Proposed Privatisation Of Banks | Press Release by All India Bank Employees’ Association

  20 February 2021

  All India Bank Employees’ Association Central Office: “Prabhat Nivas” Regn. No.2037 Singapore Plaza, 164, Linghi Chetty Street, Chennai-600001 Phone: 2535 1522 Fax: 2535 8853 M- 984 00 899 20 Web: www.aibea.in e mail chv.aibea[at]gmail.com 9840089920
  Press Release 19-2-2021
  By C.H. Venkatachalam, Gen Secretary, All India Bank Employees (…)