Mainstream Weekly

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• Friend or Enemy of Dalits?

  13 May 2018, by Sandeep Pandey

  Dr Ambedkar Mahasabha honoured the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with Dalit Mitra or Friend of the Dalit award on the birth anniversary of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, April 14, 2018 in Lucknow.
  This is the same government which had arrested Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, the founder of Bhim Army which runs over 300 education centres for Dalit children in Saharanpur. On November 2, 2017 the High Court described the four cases against Ravan and his colleague Kamal Walia as politically (…)

• Tagore for Today

  13 May 2018

  On the occasion of Rabindranath Tagore‘s 157th birth anniversary on May 9, 2018, we are carrying excerpts from Tagore’s writings and speeches that are relevant in today’s context.
  Today, more than ever before in our history, the aid of spiritual power is needed. Therefore, I believe its resources will surely be discovered in the hidden depths of our being. Pioneers will come to take up this adventure and suffer, and through suffering open out a path to that higher elevation of life in (…)

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  The Wuhan ‘Informal Summit’

  5 May 2018

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  Beyond the hype, the hoopla and the high-voltage publicity, what is the tangible outcome of the ‘Informal Summit’ between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, held on April 27 and 28? Nobody knows because except for the two interpreters taking detailed notes of their informal talks, there was none present at the one-to-one meeting. What the officials of the two sides told the media after the summit was based on the briefing given to them by the two (…)

• Chinese Perfidy

  5 May 2018, by Ashok Parthasarathi

  Sino-Indian relations have been marked by Chinese perfidy since the time we attained political independence in 1947 and the so-called Chinese “liberation” in 1949. Barely had the Chinese achieved political freedom that they attacked and annexed the whole of Tibet in 1950.
  From the very beginning of our political relations, Jawaharlal Nehru went out of his way to befriend the Chinese. When the UN Security Council was set up in 1948, Nehru had urged, indeed argued with, the Western powers (…)

• May Day

  5 May 2018

  [May 1 this year was on Tuesday last. While observing May Day we recount the following words. Though written 85 years ago, they remain as fresh as ever even today.]
  One morning you will wake and find Suddenly into the sky has climbed The wonderful unheard-of day The never-ending First of May.
  Charles Madge (Cambridge Left, 1933)

• Impeachment, a Serious Matter

  5 May 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  It’s sheer arrogance. True, Chief Justice Dipak Misra denied permission to Allahabad High Court judge Nayaran Shukla to prosecute a Lucknow-based Prasad Education Trust, which runs a medical college. But this is not such a violation of law which should invite impeachment of the Chief Justice of India.
  The Congress Party was divided but since its President, Rahul Gandhi, decided to move against the Chief Justice, even the balanced Kapil Sibal had to fall in line. Ashwini Kumar, another (…)

• The BJP Wants a Subservient Judiciary

  5 May 2018, by Barun Das Gupta

  The ugly truth, suspected for long, is out in the open now: the BJP wants a subservient judiciary. The litany of objections raised by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to the appointment of Justice K.M. Joseph as a Supreme Court judge is as flimsy and faulty as an objection can be. Justice Joseph, now the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, struck down the Centre’s decision to dismiss the Congress Government of Uttarakhand by imposing President’s Rule. His name, along with that (…)

• Two Recent Supreme/High Court Verdicts

  5 May 2018, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Some recent developments in the domain of the Indian judiciary give alarming signals. In January 2018, four senior judges of the Supreme Court alleged: There have been instances where case having far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justice of this Court selectively to the benches “of their preference” without any rational basis for such assignment.
  The situation has become more complicated after the above allegation was carried in the (…)

• Rajindar Sachar — the Man who Spoke for the Voiceless

  5 May 2018, by Sagari Chhabra

  Rajindar Sachar, the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, passed away on April 20; he was 94. His cremation was attended by many of his admirers, as he was a man who always stood by principles and who remained an indefatigable crusader for democratic and human rights. At a time when minority rights have taken such a beating in our country, his passing away is indeed a profound loss for the human rights movement. Sachar was known for his honesty and courage; he took a stand against (…)

• Hitler, Nehru and a Worthless Bose

  5 May 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  When those who don’t have it in them think they have it in them, it’s sad. Chandra Kumar Bose was a qualified management expert who did well in the Tatas for many years. Then somebody told him that he was not just another Bose but Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s own grand-nephew. Worse, the BJP zeroed in on him, told him how Bengal was waiting for his guidance and leadership. As their nominee for the chief ministership of West Bengal, they fielded him against Mamata Banerji in the (…)