Mainstream Weekly

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• The Essence of Our Secularism

  29 September 2018, by Manmohan Singh

  The following is the speech of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the Second Memorial Lecture in honour of the late CPI General Secratary, A.B. Bardhan, on “Defence of Secularism and Constitution” at the Constitution Club, New Delhi on September 25, 2018.
  Ladies and Gentlemen,
  I am grateful to you for inviting me to deliver the Second Memorial Lecture in honour of Shri A.B. Bardhan. I had the privilege of knowing Shri Bardhan for a long time. Though he and I belonged to different (…)

• Why the Moral Element in Mahatma Gandhi’s Struggle is Important for Us

  29 September 2018

  by Sharad Rajimwale
  Mahatma Gandhi devoted his entire life waging a relentless fight against segregationist policies and practices and the rule of divisive politics. In a world where politics thrives on efforts to create differences among people of various castes, religions and creeds, and fomenting hatred in their hearts for other fellow beings, his life and work acquire greater significance as the eloquent example of how it is possible to remove the social and cultural barriers by (…)

• Rafale Two

  29 September 2018, by Badri Raina

  Francois Hollande—he good man, Tells it like it is, Causing among the hypocrites Ripples, pop, and fizz.
  The shard of truth holds its edge Against the battering rams Of power, pelf, and dissembling, And the awesomeness of names.
  “Men, little men,” wrote the bard, “Dressed in a little brief authority,”— How they crash when the time is ripe, Like ragdolls of ignominy.
  Hollande merely does his bit, To clean up the drain; It is the people who must now Sift clouding chaff from grain. (…)

• Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today

  29 September 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  On October 2 this year India is celebrating the hundred and twentyfifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Government of India has set up a special committee studded with VIPs of different denominations and is chalking out an extensive programme of functions which will spread over a whole year.
  The Congress party is holding a meeting of its highest organ, the Working Committee, the very same week at Belgaum, at the border of Karnataka and Maharashtra—this again (…)

• To Mahatmaji

  29 September 2018

  I know I am one among the forty crores of people
  I have heard the announcement: the auspicious hour
  Of my life has come and all cowardly thoughts
  have melted away,
  There is festival in my blood, please hold my
  hand, Gandhiji,
  We have fought, died and taken a vow here
  We’ll wade through their dead bodies and
  reach the invincible kingdom
  Came flood, came death, came the storm of war
  Great Famine left its signature on every road,
  Every moment I was afraid the whole (…)

• Gandhi for Today

  29 September 2018

  Soldiers drunk with the pride of physical strength loot shops and are not even ashamed to take liberties with women. The administration is powerless in the war time to prevent such happenings. The army fulfils their primary need, and they wink the eyes at their misdeeds...
  Hence arise questions which a sister sends me: ‘(i) If a soldier commits an assault on a woman, can she be said to have lost her virtue? (2) Is such a woman to be condemned and ostracised by the society? (3) What should (…)

• Gandhi 150: “Absorb whatever appears good in my life”

  29 September 2018

  by D.M. Diwakar
  I. Introduction
  The stage is all set to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with great fanfare on October 2, 2019. It is a pleasant moment for a proud nation to pay sincere gratitude and tributes to the Father of the Nation. This is also an occasion to remember his ideals, vision, philosophy, programmes and actions, a moment for an introspection to review critically the journey that we have made so far and pledge ourselves with commitments and determination (…)

• Tactics of Beheading Soldiers: When Will this Gory Chapter End?

  29 September 2018

  by Gautam Sen
  After a recent border flare-up and cross-border firings, during a joint Pakistani Rangers-Border Security Force (BSF) patrol on the international border in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir State, the body of a beheaded BSF Head Constable, Narendra Singh, was located in the Ramgarh sector and retrieved to India. This phenomenon of beheading each other’s soldiers across the international border (IB) in the sectors in the lower Jammu region and northwards across the Line of (…)

• Chemical Weapons Convention

  29 September 2018, by Monaem Sarker

  Bangladesh categorically objects to the decision made at the fourth special session of the Conference of the States Parties (CSP) to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). I want to congratulate the Bangladesh delegates for their remarks on the results of voting on the British draft at the fourth special session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (June 26-28, 2018 at The Hague).
  We consider unacceptable any initiatives aimed at politicising the (…)

• ‘Bhai’ Imran to boost BJP’s 2019 Prospects?

  29 September 2018, by M K Bhadrakumar

  By accident or out of sheer ennui, I indulged in a rare act last evening (September 20)—channel surfing. And I ended up in the improbable situation of watching our Delhi-based ‘news channels’ and instantly getting hooked to the acrimonious ‘discussion’ going on regarding the forthcoming talks between the Indian and Pakistani FMs in New York next week.
  The surprising part was the savage attack by the anchor, a known propagandist of the Modi Government, on the decision to accept Imran Khan’s (…)