Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Minister and Bureaucrat

  13 August 2018, by Badri Raina

  When minister garlands convict. Democracy is at its peak; When bureaucrat speaks the truth. The iron-frame has a leak.
  Some media mention the minister. Most bash the bureaucrat; Loyal spokesperson thunders How the minister is a patriot.
  The voices that would rectify The sickening perfidy Find the caged parrot chasing them To the ends of the city.
  Across the land from end to end A fever is in the pate; Sanity slinks to a backseat As the righteous celebrate hate.
  Laws propitiate (…)

• Communists and ‘Quit India’ Struggle

  13 August 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  This was the week, fiftytwo years ago, that marked the parting of ways between the Communists and the Congress. It was the Communist opposition to the ‘Quit India’ resolution at the historic AICC session in August 1942 that ultimately led to the expulsion of the Communists from the Congress organisations in 1946. Incidentally, the eviction of the Communists from the Congress marked the beginning of the process of transformation of the Congress from an all-embracing (…)

• “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Bhim!”

  13 August 2018, by Sudhir Vombatkere

  It was Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, when he was India’s Prime Minister, who coined the slogan “Jai Jawan! Jai Kisan!”, in the realistic under-standing that the Jawan provides national external security (since then he has also been providing internal security due to failure of governance) and the Kisan provides the nation with food security. Were Shastri alive today, it seems likely that he would have added “Jai Bhim!” to his original slogan, since it is the so-called Shudra, the “untouchable”, (…)

• Military and Common Public: Hope and Paradox in Kashmir

  12 August 2018

  by Roohul Amin Malik
  During the phase of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led collation with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir, the approach to deal with separatists like the Hurriyat, youth stone-pelters and militants had remained very much aggressive. No doubt, in their common minimum programme of alliance, it was mentioned to create an environ-ment of talks with all stakeholders in the Kashmir Valley. But, in practical terms there was something else. Many of the (…)

• Post-Sachar Discourse: Search for an Inclusive Idea of India

  12 August 2018

  by Badre Alam Khan and Mohammad Shahid Alam
  Recently under the banner of the Institute of Objective Studies (IOS), a report has been released on ”Vision 2025, Socio-Economic Inequalities: Why does India’s Economic Growth need an Inclusive Agenda?’’ on July 6, 2018. A keynote was delivered by an eminent scholar, Amitabh Kundu, who is currently the Chairman of the Post-Sachar Evaluation Committee, 2014, and a former Professor of the JNU at the Jamia Millia Islamia, in the presence of eminent (…)

• Sushma versus Trolls: Rift within BJP before 2019 polls

  12 August 2018

  by Aurobindo Ghose
  There is more to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s apparently graceful response to the Twitter trolling she has faced over her Ministry’s issuance of a passport to an inter-faith couple than meets the eye.
  Swaraj has been the target of offensive tweets for helping Tanvi Seth, the wife of Mohammad Anas Siddiqui, get her passport after an officer allegedly harassed her for not changing her name to a Muslim one after her marriage.
  It is significant that a (…)

• The Bugles Are Calling For War

  12 August 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  The big question is finally being addressed: who will be the Opposition’s candidate for the Prime Minister? It will be unrealistic of course to expect an answer at this stage. But the unexpected flexibility in the Congress’ position
  tells its own tale. Two days after taking a stand firmly in favour of Rahul Gandhi, it said the party would be accommodative, that it saw itself as a facilitator of alliances, that it was ready to accept “any non-RSS candidate” as the Prime (…)

• Time for Upgradation in Education Policy

  12 August 2018, by Eduardo Faleiro

  The fundamental right to education of all children up to the age of 14 years is enshrined in our Constitution. The State Government must provide the required facilities to the students so that they can exercise this Fundamental Right. Free Education means not merely free from tuition fees but also adequate classrooms and teachers, free uniforms, textbooks and other educational material.
  In 2006, the State Government of Goa constituted a committee of educationists chaired by Prof Madhav (…)

• Rethinking Our Education

  12 August 2018

  by Saumitra Mohan
  There was a time when the Indian students pursued education for learning life-skills and acquiring knowledge. The pursuit of learning then was not about mugging facts and information, but was directed to lead the learners to wisdom thereby enriching the entire society. It was a time when none needed government permission for opening an educational institution and when no formal degrees or diplomas were awarded to students by the renowned Gurus through the once famed (…)

• What happens to those excluded from the NRC?

  12 August 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  What happens to our 40 lakh human beings! In the latest draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens, names of 40 lakh people are not included. That is, 12 per cent of Assam’s population has been left out!
  Though those excluded from the NRC are given a chance to prove their Indian citizenship but this in itself raises pertinent questions—does the government expect socially and economically deprived to have their paperwork all intact and updated? With frequent shifts and (…)