Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Threat to Constitutional Structure

  9 March 2020, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  A situation of unprecedented confusion synchronising with the onset of serious crisis for the entire constitutional structure of the Indian state presents before the nation today.
  On the one side is the outright challenge of the BJP, the most aggressive of political parties, threatening to defy the entire administration in a manner never seen before; and on the other, the ruling party at the Centre presents a picture of utter disunity with factions not only (…)

• NSA managing Delhi on behalf of Narendra Modi

  9 March 2020

  by Arun Srivastava
  This article was sent sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to space constraints.
  Some people are trying to provide a cover to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, by putting the blame for the mayhem that rocked Delhi for four days and claimed the lives of nearly 45 innocent people on some unknown persons and forces. It is nothing but a deft strategic move to protect the powerful persons who have master-minded the genocide.
  Some people are attributing the (…)

• Geopolitics of Trump’s Visit

  9 March 2020, by M K Bhadrakumar

  From a geopolitical perspective, India and the US essentially reaffirmed in the joint statement issued after the visit of President Trump—Vision and Principles for India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership—what they have been saying through the past decade or so. It is an open secret that shared concerns over China’s rise is the leitmotif of the US-Indian strategic partnership.
  The Modi-Trump joint statement is largely predicated on the belief in India that there has been a (…)

• Anatomy of a Planned Genocide

  9 March 2020, by Barun Das Gupta

  Some people will jump at the word “genocide” in connection with the recent Delhi violence. They will also jump at the word “pogrom”. They will react with equal vehemence to the phrase “communal riot”. What happened in northeast Delhi for the better part of a week, they would have us believe, was nothing but a clash between supporters of the CAA and their misguided opponents.
  The first question that should be put to them is: pray, tell us gentlemen, how many killings will qualify for being (…)

• Dynamics of Indian Economic Slowdown and Union Budget 2020-21

  9 March 2020

  by V. Mathew Kurian
  1. Introduction
  The Indian economy is currently in a grave slowdown. According to the new IMF Director, Christalina Georgieva, the world is presently in a ‘Synchronised slowdown’. But the ‘slowdown’ is more pronounced in India. The intensity of the slowdown is metaphorically expressed by Arvind Subramaniyan, the former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, that the economy is now in the ‘Intensive Care Unit’ (ICU). For the last seven years, the economy (…)

• Central Budget 2020-2021: Creates an Aura of Development but Mars Corresponding Allocations

  9 March 2020

  by S.S. Sangwan
  The Budget 2020-21 has been presented by the Finance Minister (FM), Government of India (GOI), under the prevailing conditions of slowdown in the economy, stagnant GST collections, widening trade deficit, increasing committed expenditure for salaries, pensions and subsidies. Above all, the FM is bounded by Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Regulations of keeping the fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The general perception (…)

• Triumph of Democracy: Politics of Work Defeated the Politics of Religion

  9 March 2020

  by Debtanu Majee
  The massive victory of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the recently held Delhi Assembly elections indicates that the citizens of India, and especially Delhi, are exhausted with the politics of religion promoted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the last six years. The Delhiites favoured the AAP over the BJP as it was successful in addressing the local issues like providing free electricity to families consuming electricity upto 200 units a month, air pollution, water (…)

• Trial By Paper

  9 March 2020, by Anil Nauriya

  The roots of the current crisis in citizenship jurisprudence go back to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003, which made more stringent the possibilities of acquiring Indian citizenship by birth, descent, registration and naturalisation.
  George Bernard Shaw had Bluntschli say in Arms and the Man (1898): “My rank is the highest known in Switzerland: I’m a free citizen.”
  It is slightly over a 100 years since all of India rose in answer to Gandhi’s call against the colonial Rowlatt (…)

• The Hidden Script of Delhi Riots

  9 March 2020, by Arup Kumar Sen

  The recent Delhi riots bear testimony to a new paradigm of anti-Muslim violence. On the eve of the Delhi Assembly elections on February 8, 2020, a number of BJP leaders made anti-minority hate speeches, which reportedly prepared the base for the Delhi riots.
  Reportedly, anti-CAA protestors, including women, had gathered in large numbers and occupied a portion of the road near Jaffrabad Metro station on February 22, 2020. The BJP leader, Kapil Mishra, gave a call to his supporters in the (…)

• The Lamp

  9 March 2020

  The lamps that gave light once with their steady flames wavered suddenly as the dark waves thickened and threatened. Their glow, shining up countless faces, dimmed all of a sudden. The flames bent towards the darkness.
  The light mingled with darkness and disappeared forever.
  The great betrayal had occurred.
  I knew then I must burn my earthen hands to renew the heat whose light stole out with the ebbing spirit.
  There will soon come other earthen hands to hold the embers, ready to burn (…)