Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• LETTER TO THE READERS - COVID 19 Lockdown Edition No.2

  4 April 2020

  Today is April 3, 2020. Ten days ago the whole country was locked down following the PM’s address to the nation on March 24, when he announced the government’s momentous decision on this score prompted by the spread of the corona virus. Since the lockdown continues to this day we are unable to publish the print edition of our weekly for the second consecutive week and are thus constrained to bring out only the online edition of the journal VOL LVIII No 16 dated April 4 2020. We earnestly (…)

• 

  COVID 19 Crisis : Letters From Senior Former State Official to India’s Finance Minister and to the Prime Minister

  4 April 2020

  Letter from retired bureaucrat Sri E.A.S.Sarma (Former Secretary, Govt of India) to our Union Finance Minister, giving useful suggestions re tackling the Corona virus situation,

• 

  The Editors Guild of India is deeply perturbed over the recent government statement before the Supreme Court

  4 April 2020

  DOCUMENT
  The Editors Guild of India
  Press Release
  April 02, 2020
  The Editors Guild of India is deeply perturbed over the recent government statement before the Supreme Court putting the blame on the media for causing panic among migrant workers leading to their mass movement in the wake of the lockdown.
  This led the apex court to observe that while it didn’t want to inhibit the debate on the pandemic in any way, the media should refer to and publish the official version of the (…)

• 

  PUDR demands temporary decongestion of jails in view of COVID-19 public health crisis

  4 April 2020

  DOCUMENT
  PEOPLES UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS (PUDR)
  2 April 2020
  Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) welcomes the directions passed by the Supreme Court of India on 23.03.2020 in Suo Moto Writ Petition (C) 1/2020 titled In Re: Contagian of Covid 19 Virus in Prisons. Through the said order, all States and Union territories have been directed to constitute a High Powered Committee for the release of prisoners in the wake of the public health crisis related to COVID-19.
  What is (…)

• 

  Bypassing PMNRF & Setting Up A New Fund Unnecessary - Statement by CPM Polit Bureau on PM CARES

  4 April 2020

  DOCUMENT
  April 1, 2020 Press Statement The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement: Bypassing PMNRF & Setting Up A New Fund Unnecessary The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) considers the setting up of a separate fund to meet the COVID-19 pandemic called the “PM Cares” as unnecessary. The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) has been in existence since 1948. This fund has reportedly an unspent balance of Rs. 3,800 crores. (…)

• Taliban gets Khalilzad leg before wicket but won’t appeal

  4 April 2020, by M K Bhadrakumar

  March 29, 2020
  The US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad apparently overreached by effusively welcoming the 21-member list announced in Kabul on Thursday by President Ashraf Ghani to engage with the Taliban in the format of the forthcoming intra-Afghan dialogue.
  Khalilzad tweeted on Thursday: “I want to congratulate Afghan government, political and civi society leaders for coming together. They’ve forged an inclusive negotiating team for talks with the (…)

• Professor Arjun Dev, The Historian of ‘Contemporary World’

  4 April 2020

  TRIBUTE
  by Pritish Acharya
  Professor Arjun Dev, a renowned Historian of our time, passed away on 29th March 2020 in Delhi. Born on 12 November 1938 at Leiah in West Punjab (present Pakistan) young Arjun with his parents had to migrate to India in 1948 after partition. He did his schooling in Ambala and graduation in History from Kirori Mal College, and Masters from Delhi University, Delhi. He joined NCERT in 1963 and worked there till his retirement in 2000.
  As a Professor of History, (…)

• COVID 19 Lockdown, Fleeing Masses, Rohingya Refugees of Delhi, Jayshree Misra Tripathi’s Poetry

  4 April 2020, by Humra Quraishi

  Musings, April 1, 2020
  What takes place when the rulers of the day turn a medical emergency into a human nightmare! Yes, our masses are getting subjected to the worst forms of abuse. Shots of our migrant workers and daily-wagers getting sprayed with poisonous disinfectants, walking hungry and weary and forlorn, only to be blatantly humiliated and thrashed by the lathi- yielding constables, who seem to be new rulers of the day! In fact, a Jaipur based artisan had told me in all earnestness (…)

• India Needs Return of Five-Year Plans

  4 April 2020, by Bharat Dogra

  In a highly arbitrary decision taken in 2014, the newly - elected NDA government shut down the Planning Commission and halted the process of preparing five-year plans which had continued for over six decades. Even the midterm evaluation of the 12th Plan, already in process, was not completed.
  It was evident then, and has been further confirmed in the course of the experience of the last six years, that this decision is extremely harmful for the health of the economy. The efforts of giving (…)

• What is Chandrasekhar’s politics?

  4 April 2020

  by SR Darapuri
  On March 15, Chandrashekhar Azad announced the formation of a new political party called Azad Samaj Party (ASP) which is welcome as in a democracy every citizen has the right to form his own party. But no announcement has been made about the agenda or politics of this party yet. Prima facie, so far, there has been a belief among the common people that its main aim is to do politics of Dalit Muslim alliance as seen from the conference related to the formation of the party. If (…)