Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• “. . . . . . . . . Mukt Bharat”

  7 April 2018

  by Sardar Amjad Ali
  In the present political scenario of the country, the battle the Congress under the leadership of its young President, Rahul Gandhi, with the guidance and inspiration of Smt Sonia Gandhi, is fighting, is certainly a very difficult one. It is a battle, in my estimation, not only against a divisive force in the guise of a political party called the Bharatiya Janata Party but also with its cohorts as well, having a common agenda of a “Congress Mukt Bharat”.
  Looking at (…)

• Why Myopic Left Lost Tripura

  7 April 2018

  by Sankar Ray
  Who says the Communist Party of India-Marxist or the Left Front was defeated in the Tripura State Assembly polls in 2018 by the combine of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura?
  The overwhelming majority of 2.3 million-plus voters “voted with their feet”, to quote Vladimir Illyich Lenin, who quipped following the collapse of the Russian military machine in World War I, when thousands of soldiers, hungry for days, deserted the Army to return (…)

• The New President of Indian National Congress

  7 April 2018

  by Martand Jha
  Rahul Gandhi has been elected unopposed by India’s grand old party, the Indian National Congress, as its President. His anointment as the party President brought no surprises to anyone as this was being expected for a long time now. Rahul Gandhi is the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi family to be holding the post of the party President following India’s independence.
  His great-grandfather and India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first in the family (…)

• RSS’ interpretation of ‘ahimsa-himsa’ and ‘dharma-adharma’

  7 April 2018, by Anil Rajimwale

  In the RSS lexicon, the interpretation of the dualities of ahimsa/himsa and dharma/adharma acquires a meaning, which is arbitrary and subjective, leading inevitably to a militarised view of dutiful religion and of a society of uniform individuals. It creates its own make-believe history to gain strength for its superficial concepts, extremely poor in content. The body of interpretation only creates grounds for a single-meaning discourse, which fashions an unquestioning mass of individuals (…)

• Data Protection with Concrete Walls and Uncrackable Encryption

  7 April 2018, by Sudhir Vombatkere

  Data is being acquired without much thought as to its security or end-use. Take for instance, the National Cadet Corps (NCC) collecting the names, mobile numbers and e-mail IDs of 1.3 million young boys and girls so that the PM can interact with them via the Narendra Modi App. [“For chat with PM Modi, NCC collects mobile, email IDs of 13 lakh cadets”; ; The Indian Express; March 23, 2018]
  This will create a database which will enable the PM to interact with “all (NCC) cadets across the (…)

• Bid to Change our Understanding of Religions and their Origins

  7 April 2018

  BOOK REVIEW
  by M.P. Raju
  Common Prophets of the Jews, Christians, Muslims and Hindus by Bharat Jhunjhunwala; pages: 448; Paperback, Rs 140; 2018; published by Bharat Jhunjhunwala. Available on Amazon.
  Can an out-of-the-box hypothesis lead us to truth?—anyone who starts reading the book would naturally be tempted to ask oneself. Jhunjhunwala puts forth a bold new hypothesis that the five early Prophets of the Jews, Christians and Muslims, namely Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham and Moses lived (…)

• 

  Mamata, Ram Navami Violence, Dalit Anxiety

  31 March 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  When West Bengal CM and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee arrived in the Capital on March 27 to hold discussions with several Opposition party leaders, she was speaking about building a non-Congress, non-BJP Federal Front. But on March 28 evening after meeting UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Delhi CM and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal as well as dissident BJP leaders (Shatrughan Sinha, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie) she said: “The country wants us to fight them (the BJP) on the (…)

• Remotely-controlled Weapons hit Democracy

  31 March 2018

  by L.K. Sharma
  National electorates have lost their primacy in deciding the outcome of their elections. They have the vote and they go to the polling booths, but their choice may be determined by a foreign government or a private company. In the new information order, manipulated voters have come to outnumber threatened voters and bribed voters.
  Democracy stands diminished as the world debates whether Donald Trump was sent to the White House by American voters or by Vladimir Putin! Not a (…)

• Mosul Tragedy, Decoding ISIS

  31 March 2018, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  As the tragic news comes in of 39 of our men killed in the Iraqi township of Mosul, allegedly by the ISIS, one sits back shaken. There are too many disasters and human tragedies taking place in the Middle East—barbaric killings, car explosions, bombs strapped on the alive forms of teenagers, homes targeted, buildings bombarded, entire settlements razed to the ground, dying children, deaths and destructions as never before.
  One has been left wondering—who set up the ISIS? Who is (…)

• Rahul in a New Avatar?

  31 March 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  Rahul Gandhi is the new star on the Congress firmament. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, has passed on the baton to him and he is the party President. Rahul is the great grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru. Thus the office of the Prime Minister, if and when the party is voted to power, remains with the dynasty. It has, naturally, given a sense of unity, important for a country of division and diversity.
  Rahul Gandhi is not that young. At 48, he is the youngest President of the Congress so far. Whether (…)