Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Rafale: Mid-Air Magic

  15 September 2018, by Badri Raina

  How can Rafale be a scam, Unless Arvind Rai says so first? And public money in private hands Is always in the national interest.
  That was a time of paralysis, Now decisions are made mid-air; When gratis comes from the top It can never be less than fair.
  Cabinet, Parliament, Committees

• Transcending Spaces: Searching for a New Political Philosophy

  15 September 2018

  by Murzban Jal
  To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. (Nach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben, ist barbarisch).
  Theodor Adorno, Prisms
  The Greeks might seem to have confirmed the death of the sage and to have replaced him with philosophers

• Highways, Accidents, Landslides

  15 September 2018, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  The four-lane expansion of Parwanoo-Solan highway was supposed to curb traffic jams, reduce travel time and improve safety but it is time to ask whether the reverse of what was supposed to be achieved has actually occurred. The kind of landslides that are being seen now were never seen earlier. When looking at some of the landslide sites it appears as if a big disaster is just waiting to happen. Thousands of trees have been cut mercilessly. Local people say that the number is (…)

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  Indo-US Defence Deal: What does it Presage?

  9 September 2018

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  The Indo-US Defence Deal was signed in New Delhi today. It draws India closer into the US orbit. We are of course threatened by a hostile China. The US wants to build up India militarily as a bulwark against China’s expansionist policy. This brings the interests of the two countries to convergence. But India will have to pay for this deal. New Delhi will now have to import advanced military hardware from Washington. How far it will impact on the government’s “Make in (…)

• Will the RSS Answer First ?

  9 September 2018, by Badri Raina

  It has been clear in recent days that the RSS is seeking to enhance its political footprint. To this purpose it has been staging meetings and conferences to which people from outside the sphere of the Sangh have been invited, including some who have never seen eye to eye with its ideological agenda. Although it is effectively running the present-day state via its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, its ambition now seems to find greater legitimation and more direct occupancy in power (…)

• Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Homage to Jawaharlal Nehru on Panditji’s Death

  9 September 2018

  DOCUMENT
  In the wake of all kinds of things being spoken and written about former PM A.B. Vajpayee by leaders and followers of the Sangh Parivar after his passing away, it is worthwhile to recall the homage that Vajpayee had paid in Parliament to Panditji on May 28, 1964 following the latter’s demise (May 27, 1964).
  Sir, a dream has been shattered, a song silenced, a flame has vanished in the infinite. It was the dream of a world without fear and without hunger, it was the song of an (…)

• Which Party cares for Dalits Today?

  9 September 2018

  by Ram Puniyani
  Recently anti-Dalit atrocity laws were first diluted inserting the clause of anticipatory bail. Following this there were serious protests all over. In these protests, the anti-Dalit nature of the present ruling dispensation, the BJP-led NDA, was highlighted. Under the pressure of the protests, the government had to bring in a Bill to restore its previous provisions. The Lok Sabha on August 6, 2018 unanimously passed a Bill to reverse the effects of a Supreme Court order (…)

• The Larger Picture on GDP Numbers

  9 September 2018

  by Arun Kumar
  The new data on the GDP have raised a political storm, with the back series for GDP growth since 1993-94 becoming available. Its importance lies in the fact that in 2015, a new series was announced which showed India’s GDP growing faster than the earlier series had shown. This was politically advantageous to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government which came to power in 2014.
  The NDA claimed that the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA II) Government had (…)

• Russia and China in Alliance Conditions

  9 September 2018, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Three things stand out in the remarks made by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday (August 28) in the context of Russia’s forthcoming Vostok-2018 military exercise in the Trans-Baikal Region in East Siberia during September 11-15.
  At the obvious level, Peskov was speaking from the picturesque southwestern city of Omsk where he was accompanying President Vladimir Putin. Nothing that Peskov says can be unintentional and his remarks from Omsk carried added resonance, because he (…)

• Naipaul: An Abandoned Child looks and relooks at the Motherland

  9 September 2018

  by L.K. Sharma
  Naipaul always felt that his books would stand the test of time. But which of his books on India, after multiple visits to his ancestral land, will stand that test?
  Naipaul was obsessed with the idea of exile. His composite hero is a quintessential exile and most of his books reflect continuity. His ancestors came from India. He grew up in Trinidad, spent his life in England and experienced double exile. The scattering of the people from their original homes fascinated (…)