Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Litmus Test

  23 February 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The menace of communalism looms large in this country today perhaps more than at any time before. With all the dire warnings being sounded repeatedly against the danger of destabilisation, the government so far has done very little to halt the advance of vicious communal hatred leading to orgies of violence in different parts of the country. It is amazing that while the Prime Minister concedes that there has been a deterioration in the communal situation—as he did at (…)

• Patriarchy, Piety and Padmavat(i): The Sordid Story

  23 February 2018

  by Navneet Sharma and Anamica
  “The film which distorts facts and disrespects ‘Rashtra Mata’ will not be allowed to screen...”
  —Shivraj Singh Chouhan
  “In Rajasthan 47 per cent of women are illiterate, 50 per cent of girls are mothers by the age of 19, 51 per cent of girls are married before legal age, only 883 girls are born for every 1000 boys......Save the honour of Rani Padmini.
  A WhatsApp message
  “When a woman is raped, people say that she has lost her honour. How did she lose (…)

• Damp Squib but Revealing Facets of Indian Bureaucracy

  23 February 2018

  BOOK REVIEW
  by V.B. Abrol
  Life in the IAS : My Encounters with the Three Lals of Haryana by Ram Varma; Rupa, New Delhi; September 2017; pp xi-xxii+ 303; Rs 595.
  After graduating in Arts from the prestigeous but short-lived Rajasthan College, Jaipur (August 1957-April 1962); Ram (Sahai) Varma went on to do his post-graduation in English Literature from Allahabad University, then known as the Oxford of the East. This was a sort of double insurance to get into the much coveted civil (…)

• A Letter to My Dear Students and Fellow Teachers

  23 February 2018

  by G.N. Saibaba
  The following is a letter received by Vasantha Kumari, the wife of Prof G.N. Saibaba, from the Delhi University professor now lodged in Nagpur’s Central Prison on the charge of being a Maoist activist. She decided to share the contents of the letter with the wider public and sent it to, inter alia, this journal for publication. The letter was received on February 13, 2018.
  I dream of being in my classroom
  day and night fettered behind
  the strong iron beams
  of my (…)

• Asma, a Votary of Peace

  23 February 2018, by Kuldip Nayar

  Asma Jahangir, who kicked the bucket last week, was a popular human rights lawyer and social activist. Although her work was confined to Pakistan, her example was followed through-out the subcontinent. The place from where she announced the foundation of the Human Rights Commission, an organisation to protect individual rights, also became the venue for meetings to normalise relations between India and Pakistan.
  Asma would get girls and boys from India and Pakistan together at the house (…)

• AIBEA Demands CBI Inquiry into PNB Fraud to Book the Culprits

  23 February 2018

  DOCUMENT
  The following is a press release issued by C.H. Venkatachalam, the General Secretary of the All India Bank Employees’ Association, on February 18, 2018.
  At a time when banks are facing the problem of huge irrecoverable bad loans and getting into losses due to provisions to be made from the profits earned, the PNB—NIMO fraud has come as a huge shock exposing the increasing trend of corporate loot of banks and thus, the people’s money.
  Attempts are being made to dilute the (…)

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  RSS Chief’s Pronouncements

  17 February 2018, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Almost forty years ago the Janata Party Government in New Delhi collapsed primarily because the Jana Sangh component of the then ruling conglomerate refused to sever its deep connections with the RSS. It was akin to breaking its umbilical chord that linked it to its parent. The erstwhile Jana Sangh leaders, especially Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, conveyed that the RSS being a socio-cultural organisation, it was not involved in any political activity; so having any connection with it (…)

• The silence at Gaddafi during Asma’s funeral was a reminder of what losing a champion sounds like

  17 February 2018

  TRIBUTE
  by Rimmel Mohydin
  The funeral was scheduled for 3 pm on Tuesday (Febuary 13). On a regular day, the Gaddafi Stadium is about a 12-minute drive away. We left at exactly 1:45 pm. It was everyone’s last chance to see her. Obviously, the traffic would be terrible.
  We got as close as we could to the stadium gates in our car, and then started making our way into the crowd on foot. The ambulance carrying her wasn’t too far away. It moved slowly, aware of the gravity of the woman it (…)

• Dr Ajit Mozoomdar Is No More

  17 February 2018

  Dr Ajit Mozoomdar, 94, was born in Patna in 1924. He belonged to an illustrious Brahmo family. His education was in Patna and in Calcutta. He joined the IAS in 1946. After joining the service, he obtained a scholarship from the British Council and a D.Phil in Oxford. He returned to India and served in top positions, mainly in the Ministry of Finance. He retired as the Secretary of the Planning Commission, Government of India. After retirement, he was appointed the Executive Director of the (…)

• Kalpana Dutt

  17 February 2018, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following lines were written by N.C. twentythree years ago and published in this journal’s February 18, 1995 issue. It is being reproduced on the occasion of the distinguished revolutionary Kalpana Dutt’s twentythird death anniversary which fell on February 8 this year. It came and went with hardly anyone remembering her on that day. Kalpana’s birth centenary five years ago on July 27, 2013 also went virtually unnoticed. But we in Mainstream have decided to offer (…)