Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• In the Name of Ram

  24 March 2020, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  To build a temple to mark the brithplace of Ram, a mosque was destroyed by deceit.
  Those who swiftly and competently did the demolition job on Sunday (December 6, 1992), did so before the very eyes of those leaders who had been assuring Parliament and the public that the disputed structure would not be harmed until the dispute itself was settled by negotiations or through the due process of law. The UP Government, which was manned by the party which supported the (…)

• Rubble

  24 March 2020

  You lifted one fistful of saltAnd an empire was shamed. LiftOne fistful of rubbleNowAnd pour it on our shameless heads.
  December 6, 1992, Gopal Gandhi
  (Published on December 13, 1992 in The Hindu from where it is reproduced with due acknowledgement.)

• Remembering Dr Mubashir Hasan

  24 March 2020

  Dr Mubashir Hasan, 98, one of the most prominent crusaders for India-Pakistan amity at the people’s level besides being an outstanding champion of democracy in Pakistan, breathed his last at his residence in Lahore on March 14, 2020 leaving behind countless peace activists in both India and Pakistan who had been inspired by his tireless activities for Indo-Pakistan friendship and cooperation over the last 25 years. Dr Hasan was Pakistan’s Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Affairs in (…)

• Mubashir Hasan

  24 March 2020, by Syeda Hameed

  TRIBUTE
  Woh dekha jaye kab ye zulm dekha jaaye hai mujh se
  (How shall I bear to see this, this injustice)
  Ghalib*
  Who was he?
  Statesman poet writer ornithologist visionary?
  His tall frame
  Strode across South Asia
  Rose to pinnacle of power
  Rose and rose
  Then easily gently
  Let the power go into the void.
  Soldier for peace
  I saw him in halls and streets
  Of Lahore Delhi Karachi Kolkata Bangalore
  Amidst women and men who
  With banners and songs
  Asserted the (…)

• Mubashir Hasan: A man who yearned for Peace through Empowerment of People in the Subcontinent

  24 March 2020, by Tapan Bose

  TRIBUTE
  Dr Mubashir Hasan, founder and the guiding spirit of Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy, is no more. The subcontinent has lost a great crusader for the rights of the poor and peace between India and Pakistan. Since 1990, India has been facing a mass revolt in Kashmir for Aazadi which was spearheaded by local militants. In order to suppress the move-ment, the Indian Government had saturated the Valley with military and paramilitary forces, empowering them to use (…)

• BJP’s Hatred Campaign continues Unabated

  24 March 2020

  by Arun Srivastava
  Modi has himself to blame for the battering his image received in the wake of the communal riots in Delhi. What is really intriguing is even after this he has not taken the steps to tighten the screw and put the people indulged in the nasty game in the right place.
  After the Delhi massacre accusing fingers were raised towards Amit Shah. But Modi did not take any action. He even ignored the demand for his resignation. On his part Shah is also not ashamed of the Delhi (…)

• Destroying Constitutional ‘Fraternity’: NPR-NRC from Assam to All-India

  24 March 2020, by S G Vombatkere

  There was public alarm following enactment of the CAA-2019. The 2003 Rules [Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003] may not have been examined in detail had the CAA-2019 not been enacted with the intention of the countrywide NPR-NRC. Now the 2003 Rules stand exposed as providing definite possibilities for malafide/ targeted use in the NPR-NRC process. [Ref. 1]
  The Assam Experience
  The NPR-NRC was conducted in Assam to identify illegal (…)

• CAA: Should the United Nations norms be respected in Domestic Policies?

  24 March 2020

  by Ram Puniyani
  In the wake of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the UN High Commissioner, Michele Bachelet, has filed an intervention in the Supreme Court petition challenging the constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act, as she is critical of the CAA. Responding to her, India’s Foreign Minister S. Jai Shanker strongly rebutted her criticism, saying that the body (UNHCR) has been wrong and is blind to the problem of cross-border terrorism. The issue on hand is the possibility (…)

• Can Modi-Trump Bromance Really Improve India-US Ties?

  24 March 2020, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The distinctly low-key rhetoric in America in the run-up to US President Donald J. Trump’s visit to India stands in sharp contrast to the traditional approach to such high-level events in recent times.
  The American think-tanks and mainstream media were largely indifferent, and as it turned out, the media turned its eyes more on Delhi burning and writhing in paroxysms of mindless communal violence than on the Modi-Trump bromance.
  The American strategic community appears to have pre-judged (…)

• Anatomy of Lynching under BJP Rule in India

  24 March 2020

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Mohammad Chingiz Khan
  Lynch Files: The Forgotten Saga of Victims of Hate Crime by Ziya Us Salam; pp. i to xxvi, 193; New Delhi: SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd.; 2019; Rs 450.
  The comprehensive treatise of eminent journalist and social commentator Ziya Us Salam’s Lynch Files: The Forgotten Saga of Victims of Hate Crime is one of such critiques that deals with the horrendous incidents of mob-lynching happening in different States of India against the minorities, (…)