Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Trump’s Pick of Strong Men

  17 February 2019

  Trump likes strong leadership, But only from the Right; When it comes to Leftwing dictators, Trump turns democrat.
  The man who ordered dismemberment Of a critical journalist— Being friendly with oil and investment— Tops Trump’s approval list.
  But Maduro whom the labouring mass support Is a recalcitrant Bartelby; “I would prefer not to” he says “To enslave my economy.”
  So much like Gaddafi and Saddam This Maduro Trump must nix By backing convenient quisling Willing to be an Uncle Sam (…)

• Triple Talaaq Bill: Limits, Ambiguities and Politics

  17 February 2019

  by Ananya Pathak
  The Opposition stood in stark condemnation, as the Triple Talaaq Bill came to be passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, January 3, 2019. The Bill seeks to criminalise the practice of instant triple talaaq among Muslims. Under the law, the act of giving instant talaaq will attract a jail term of upto three years for a husband. The Opposition was demanding that the Bill be referred to a Joint Committee but walked out when its demand could not be met.
  The ruling party (…)

• Rising Roar of Faux Faith in Poll-bound India

  17 February 2019

  by L.K. Sharma
  If you hear the rising roar of faith, it is election-time in India. Belief in God is stronger than any political belief. Faith rushes to fill the ideological vacuum and goes on to cleanse politics of the residual ideological content. Religious fervour, injected into a poll campaign, boosts popular interest in elections, promotes identity politics and alters voting preferences. That is why the ruling BJP has made religious polarisation its electoral strategy. It consolidates (…)

• In the Aftermath

  17 February 2019, by SC

  The mosque was eloquent History, Everything else was shrouded in mythology.
  Yet they, under the spell of fiery oratory, Chose to chase the mirage of a myth, Pull down the building And build hatred in their hearts.
  When I, a citizen of this vast land With the pulsating impulse of History behind me, Watched helplessly in speechless agony.
  My dreams lie shattered, My country split And its future back to the tribal past.
  I know not how to atone for my immoral silence For History shall (…)

• 

  Whirligig Politics

  10 February 2019, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  One had known for quite sometime that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections would witness a no-holds-barred campaign with PM Narendra Modi firmly resolved to stay on in power and the combined Opposition determined to oust him from the office he currently holds. The PM’s speech in the Lok Sabha and Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s address outside Parliament today provided ample testimony of that possibility. Observers anticipate not just that, but increasing prospects of sharp (…)

• Mamata emerges as a Focal Point of the National Opposition

  10 February 2019

  by Nityananda Ghosh
  The sordid drama that started unfolding with a carload of CBI officials appearing out of the blue in front of the Kolkata Police Commissioner’s residence in the city on February 3, 2019, with the attempt to barge into the building turned out to be a massive confrontation between the Centre and the State as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vs the entire Opposition except the CPI-M which chose to isolate itself from the Opposition ranks. The Supreme Court on (…)

• Street-fighter Mamata

  10 February 2019, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Mamata Banerjee is indeed a fighter. The latest political developments taking off from West Bengal, where she came up with that piercing shrill cry to halt the BJP-RSS moves, is only a continuation of her determined effort to keep the Right-wing at bay, away from wrecking communal strife and havoc in her State.
  In fact, in the recently launched book on her, ‘Didi—The Untold Mamata Banerjee (Penguin), author Shutapa Paul focuses on the political graph of Mamata Banerjee writ large (…)

• Why North-East Citizens Rebel

  10 February 2019, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Imagine all South Indian States uniting on a platform of ethnic difference from the North, as C.N. Annadurai briefly contemplated once upon a time. Something similar is happening in the North-East. Ethnically, culturally and historically, the North-Eastern States have been different from the rest of India. North-Easterners often talked about going to the “mainland” when they meant going to India. The mainlanders, for their part, often referred to the North-Easterners in terms (…)

• Union Budget 2019: Cynically giving back a fraction of what has been taken

  10 February 2019, by Arun Kumar

  The Union Budget 2019-20 is a full Budget in spite of the title of Interim Budget. The convention is that it should have been a Vote on Account to carry on the business of government for a few months till the full Budget is presented by the new government in July. However, nothing stops a government from using the occasion to make announcements that may help the ruling party to win the coming elections. The present dispensation is in need of a please-all Budget since its recent showing at (…)

• A Half-hearted Budget in the Name of the Poor

  10 February 2019

  by S.S. Sangwan
  As usual, the Budget of 2019-20 is a political Budget just three months prior to the 17th lok Sabha elections. After defeat in three States, the first pro-poor compulsion of the government was the constitutional amendment for 10 per cent reservation in educational institutions and government services for the EWS in the general category. The lacklustre attitude of the government and even the Congress stems from the limit of upto Rs 8 lakhs for the EWS and it may prove to be (…)