Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Best and the Worst on Show

  9 September 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  How many will learn how many lessons from the floods that devastated Kerala and Kodagu? The most important lesson is bound to go unlearned—that, ultimately, these were again examples of nature collapsing under the impact of human greed. We were warned of it five years ago when cloudbursts and landslides turned Uttarakhand upside down, killing nearly 6000 people.
  It was adjudged a man-made disaster with hydroelectric dams, illegal mining and construction activities upsetting (…)

• Pentagon’s Loss

  9 September 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Last month was observed the thirtieth death anniversary of General Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s third military dictator, who was killed in an air crash in that country in August 1988. Despite the repeated anti-US demonstrations in Pakistan today, the fact is that General Zia happened to be “an indispensable factor in the Pentagon’s scheme of things”, as noted in this incisive editorial N.C. had written on August 17, 1988 (it was published in the August 20, 1988 issue of (…)

• Democracy Under Siege!

  9 September 2018

  The following statement was issued on August 31, 2018 by the New Socialist Initiative (NSI) on the recent arrests of human rights defenders and public intellectuals.
  The New Socialist Initiative strongly condemns the arbitrary and malicious manner in which the Pune Police, at the behest of its saffron masters, raided the houses of leading human rights activists, lawyers, professors and poets in different cities simultaneously and arrested five of them—Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Arun (…)

• What Happened at the Simla Talks with Pakistan in June-July, 1972

  9 September 2018, by Ashok Parthasarathi

  After the conclusion of the “Bangladesh War” on December 16, 1971 it was decided through diplomatic channels that post-War talks would be held over June 30 and July 2 between Mrs Gandhi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had become the President of a wobbly civilian government in Pakistan and their respective top Ministers and officials. Mrs Gandhi had with her, Foreign Minister Swaran Singh, D.P. Dhar, Chairman, Policy Planning Committee in the Ministry of External Affairs with the rank of a (…)

• Saint-Engineer stakes his Life to Save Ganga before an Insensitive Government and Society

  9 September 2018

  by Sandeep Pandey
  Matre Sadan, on the banks of river Ganga, is no ordinary Ashram in Haridwar and Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, fasting since June 22, 2018, demanding a law for conservation of the Ganga, is no ordinary sadhu. Earlier Swamis Shivanand, head priest of the Ashram, his disciples Nigmanand, Dayanand, Yajnanand and Purnanand have observed long fasts to prevent illegal mining in Ganga in Haridwar. Nigmanand died on the 115th day of his fast in 2011 after he was poisoned with (…)

• Two Months of an Indefinite Fast

  9 September 2018

  COMMUNICATION
  Swami Sanand (formerly Prof G.D. Aggrawal) has been on an indefinite fast in Haridwar and Rishikesh (Uttarakhand) on issues relating to protection of the Ganga river for two months since June 22. His main concern centres on the legislation for protection of the Ganga river along the lines of a draft bill which was prepared sometime back by an officially constituted committee within the framework of the norms of government functioning. Although he is a saint, all of his (…)

• Imran Khan: A New Hope for Pakistan

  9 September 2018

  by Ravindra Sharma
  Merely a month-and-a-half ago, elections were held in Pakistan (July 25). As the political dust of elections has almost settled, one seeks to analyse the outcome of the elections with an open and fresh mind. While cricketer-turned-political leader Imran khan was eloquently busy to take oath as the 22nd Prime Minster of Pakistan, India lost two important personalities. The first, a liberal Hindu leader, A.B. Vajpayee who ruled over India (in 1998 and 1999-2004), and the (…)

• Doval and Narayanan: Peas in a Time-warped Pod

  9 September 2018

  by Seema Mustafa
  The biggest reason for not re-employing retired bureaucrats, particularly after a spell out of power, is that they tend to remain stuck in time. In that if an official has retired in, say, 2000 and is re-employed in 2010, for him the ten intervening years have never happened. The good or the bad of the decade is not his reality—here one does not need to qualify ‘her’ as rarely are women bureaucrats ever brought back into gainful seats of power after retirement—as for him (…)

• Remembering J.P. Naik’s Experiments in Health and Education

  9 September 2018

  by Vrushali Dehadray
  J.P. Naik, the founder of the Indian Institute of Education, was the Adviser to the Government of India during the 1960s and the chief architect of the Kothari Commission Report which is still considered as a milestone in the history of India’s education policy. This article discusses his experiments in education and health at the grassroot level. It is being published on the occasion of the Teachers’ Day on September 5.
  J.P. Naik (September 5, 1907-August 30, 1981), (…)

• Towards a Child-friendly World

  9 September 2018

  by Paroma Bhattacharya
  A child-friendly world is no utopian fable and well within our reach. For putting things into perspective let us first understand what a child-friendly world is. Simply put, it is a world where all children are free, safe, healthy and educated and are able to enjoy their universal and fundamental rights without any exception whatsoever. It is a world where children are in an enabling environment that helps them realise their dreams and unleash their fullest (…)