Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Indian Muslims: Differing Views

  7 October 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  It is the irony of ironies that (a) the Government of India banned triple talaq without getting a proper Bill properly passed in Parliament, and (b) Muslims attacked the “reform”, saying that it will not help Muslim women. Who said anything about helping Muslim women? The new law is merely an election-eve move even though its vote-catching potential is doubtful.
  Whether it is the Muslim personal law or the newfangled register of citizens, or the convoluted vote-bank politics (…)

• World Economy — A Decade after the Financial Crisis

  7 October 2018

  by V. Mathew Kurian
  I. Introduction
  In 2008, America confronted a financial crisis which later spread to other parts of the world making it a global financial crisis. The financial meltdown as a contagion affected adversely the functioning of the real economy, turning it into a ‘great recession’. Ten years are now over by this financial and economic breakdown of the world. In this predicament, it is worth to explore the experience of the global economy during in the last decade. (…)

• Lessons to be Learnt from Kerala Disaster

  7 October 2018

  by Mahendra Ved
  At a time when India’s political class as a whole, and the government in particular, leave resolution of many contentious issues to the ‘wisdom’ of the Supreme Court, taking time off, two of its judges, Justices K.M. Joseph and K.M. Mathew, sang for supper, literally, but not theirs. They sang for the marooned people of Kerala.
  At a function in New Delhi on August 27, Justice K.M. Joseph sang “Hum Honge Kamyaab”. It is the Hindi version of the original gospel “We Shall (…)

• Highest European Court Ruling Confirms Serious Risks of Gene-Edited Crops

  7 October 2018, by Bharat Dogra

  At a time when more and more people in the world are becoming concerned about the serious health risks and numerous other adverse impacts of genetically modified (GM) crops and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the enormously powerful billion-dollar GMO multinationals have tried once again to introduce confusion and uncertainty in public mind by coming up with the concept of gene-edited crops and claiming that these should not be subject to the same restrictions as GM crops. However, in (…)

• Understanding Mohanji Bhagwat’s Formulations

  7 October 2018, by Badri Raina

  So perplexing have Shri Mohan Bhagwat’s formulations been with regard to the meaning of being “Hindu” that days after his lecture series one is still struggling to understand, if you like, make sense of what seem some convolutions and conundrums therein.
  Since most of us live out our identities on a quotidian level from one day to another, it is important that our self-definitions must have such logical consistency as may enable us to function with a self-confidence born of clarity.
  Shri (…)

• Under Yogi UP turning into another Kashmir!

  7 October 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  During his election campaigns Yogi Adityanath’s speeches carried a particular one- liner, along the strain that under Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Government the State of Uttar Pradesh was turning into another Kashmir!
  In fact, it’s today, under the chief ministership of the BJP’s Yogi Adityanath, that one can see strong traces of Kashmir in Uttar Pradesh! Last week’s encounter killings in Aligarh where two young men were shot dead by the State police force and then Apple (…)

• Hyper-extremism tends to follow Extremism

  7 October 2018

  by L.K. Sharma
  The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), India’s self-styled “cultural” organisation, whose political wing, the BJP, runs the Union Government, held a public outreach programme designed to soften its image and make itself palatable to the opponents of its Hindu nationalism and sectarianism. That caused a political stir because, as an insider says, this militant Hindu Right-wing organisation, manned by a huge network of paramilitary volunteers, never admits there is anything (…)

• Abode Of God

  7 October 2018

  A.K. Das has sent the following poem with a letter from Lucknow that reads: “The Supreme Court has delivered the landmark judgement upholding the right of women of all ages to worship at Sabarimala temple. Earlier I had composed a poem on the subject; it appears in my book of poetry Voyage Continues. I’m quoting below the poem. Since the matter is very relevant, you may kindly like to give it space in your weekly.”
  [A poem on ban of women’s right to enter into places of worship]
  She is (…)

• Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Must Quit: CPI

  7 October 2018

  The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement on September 21, 2018 demanding resignation of Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
  The National Secretariat of the Communist Party of India accuses Union Minister for Defence Nirmala Sitharaman of hiding facts from the general public as well as of belittling the internationally acclaimed public sector unit (PSU) engaged in defence production, namely, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). The party (…)

• Time to Breach the Wall

  7 October 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The last few months have witnessed the deterioration of Indo-Pak relations to the point of almost eye-ball-to-eyeball confrontation. Tempers have been stoked high and the fiercest propaganda bombardment has been going on between two neighbours born out of the same motherland.
  The measure of this high-pitched tension was provided on the one side by Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s frenzied diatribe against India over the Kashmir issue, and by the disgraceful (…)