Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Dalit Anger, Muzzling Free Press

  7 April 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Dalit anger at the perceived dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act) as a consequence of a March 20 order of the Supreme Court erupted in large-scale violence in different parts of the country, especially North India (with Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, to go to polls this year, witnessing the worst violence), on April 2 resulting in the death of nine persons—six in Madhya Pradesh, two in UP and one in Rajasthan—while many were injured (…)

• Indo-Pak Scenario through the Prism of Two Recent Developments

  7 April 2018

  by Gouri Sankar Nag and Debabrata Das
  This article was received sometime back but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  This paper is an attempt to highlight certain issues constituting a facet of the current scenario between India and Pakistan from which to infer the trajectory of their evolving relations. However, to make things clear, in focussing upon issues we have consciously avoided oft-cited cases and perhaps the most intractable issues like Kashmir and the (…)

• Another Lost Opportunity

  7 April 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  This article was sent quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  Nothing seems to work between India and Pakistan. The meeting of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian prisoner in Pakistan jail, with his wife and mother could have been an opportunity to foster a better understanding between the two countries. But the bureaucracy on both sides is so contaminated to the last tier of administration that it spoils any effort towards better relation-ship.
  After 21 (…)

• They want a new assassin identified in the Gandhi case; they want BJP painted as a peace dove in Kerala

  7 April 2018, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  These are unusual days no doubt. But how unusual can unusualness get? Can the murder of Mahatma Gandhi be enacted again to show that he was not killed by the man who killed him? Can a propaganda war, however elaborate, really convince anyone that mass killings of migrant workers are taking place in Kerala? Controversies of this kind are politically loaded. Hence the heat—and the danger.
  The Gandhi assassination twist is typical of the politics that motivate it all, one (…)

• Upsurge of the Underprivileged

  7 April 2018

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Whoever rules Uttar Pradesh gets the passport to Delhi. This has long been the rule during the days of the Congress hegemony. Actually, Uttar Pradesh can claim to have reared as many as seven Prime Ministers: Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar. The only exceptions so far have been Morarji Desai and now Narasimha Rao.
  What is more significant is that the political set-up in Uttar Pradesh, (…)

• Electoral Democracy

  7 April 2018, by Badri Raina

  We may be the largest Democracy, But what nuisance elections are; Especially when saffron begins to fade, And other shades reappear.
  It is best to have elections out of the way Simultaneously, While strong man is still in charge, And opinion gingerly.
  The Basic thing in democracy Is not to answer to the electorate;, But to make the people fall in line Behind the leader and the state.
  Among the Basic Institutions Of Constitutiional Democracy Not Parliament, Judiciary, or the Media But (…)

• BJP-ruled States Outdo Others in Crimes against Dalits

  7 April 2018

  by S.R. Darapuri
  It has again come up prominently in the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) “Crime in India—2016” Report that the BJP-ruled States outdo other States in atrocities against Dalits (Scheduled Castes). The same scenario was during 2015 also. At present the BJP-ruled States are Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Goa and Jharkhand where cases of Dalit atrocities are more than in the non-BJP-ruled States. This situation exposes Modi’s show (…)

• An Anti-people Regimen

  7 April 2018

  by Sandeep Pandey and Rahul Pandey
  The 2018-19 Budget of the Narendra Modi Government has been touted as catering to the interests of the farmers, rural workers, women, Dalits and small businesses but nothing can be farther from the truth. A strikingly paradoxical feature of this Budget is the announcement of new schemes for farmers and poor accompanied by a reduction in the funds actually allocated in the Budget. For example, allocation for the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (rural (…)

• Tamil Nadu-Kerala Water Conflicts: A Pragmatic Picture

  7 April 2018

  by Velayutham Saravanan
  This article was sent to us quite sometime ago. But it could not be used earlier for unavoidable reasons.
  In the developing countries, competing demand for water with the different stakeholders has increased, particularly during the last quarter of the twentieth century. This competing demand is mainly due to the population growth, agricultural expansion, urbanisation, industria-lisation, domestic water supply and water pollution, and many other factors. (…)

• Kashmir and Afzal Guru

  7 April 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Now that the government of the day has withdrawn the Haj subsidy, it ought to take another step forward and withdraw the subsidy and support it provides for all the pilgrimages and yatras and melas associated with any religion. After all, in a democracy, religion ought to be kept away from governance. In our country, there is a blatant mix and match, more so in these recent years. There ought to be a complete and immediate halt of this.
  Whilst on the Haj pilgrimage I’m of the (…)