Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Saral Patra is No More

  7 November 2016

  Veteran journalist Saral Patra, 93, passed away in New Delhi in the early hours of October 31, 2016. He leaves behind his wife, Protima, and sons, Arun and Sanjay.
  Born in Bengal in April 1923, he went to Lahore to work in the UPI (United Press of India) news agency and stayed there till 1947. It is there that he became fluent in Punjabi.
  After the partition he moved to Delhi. By that time he had been drawn into the communist movement. Being a Punjabi-speeking Bengali from Lahore, he (…)

• Competitive Communalism

  30 October 2016

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  Several striking developments of the last few days have hogged the headlines.
  These include the removal of Cyrus Mistry from the chairmanship of the Tata Group and the ongoing war in the Parivar of the ruling Samajwadi Party in UP. Mistry says his ouster from the top office of the Tatas was “unparalleled in the annals of corporate history” and manifests the “total lack of corporate governance and a failure of the Directors to discharge there feduciary duty to (…)

• PIPFPD’s Latest Call

  30 October 2016

  The following is the press statement issued by the India Chapter of the PIPFPD after the Forum’s National Committee meeting in Jammu on October 22.
  The Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), in its National Committee meeting held in Jammu on October 22, 2016, has decided to launch a “No to war” campaign.
  In the prevailing tense scenario between India and Pakistan, the campaign is the need of the hour. It is necessary to neutralise pro-war jingoism generated by (…)

• It’s Mandir again

  30 October 2016, by Kuldip Nayar

  It is Mandir again. The controversy over it comes to life whenever there are elections. The Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. No doubt, the blame for the destruction is on the extremist Hindus, who did not even care for the Supreme Court’s advice to let the status quo prevail. The controversy over it, however, was practically over.
  The then Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao, connived at the whole thing and promised to demolish the small temple which had come up at the site in (…)

• Aping Israel, Build-up in Ayodhya

  30 October 2016, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Why did this government indulge in all possible publicity stunts on Gandhi Jayanti Day when it was all set to follow the Israeli way to strike? Doublespeak at the highest level! The top brass of the BJP-RSS should not talk of Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy of non-violence when it is flaunting its might to kill! In fact, Modi’s Government is going a step further; it’s not just threatening to kill the enemy but also its own people. After all, the so-called ‘controlling the crowds’ (…)

• Whither Justice for Religious Minorities?

  30 October 2016

  by Ram Puniyani
  Retired judge of the Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju wrote (September 26, 2016) to the Supreme Court judges: “You are aware that one Ikhlaq was brutally lynched by cow vigilantes in Dadri. Instead of severely punishing the perpetrators of this heinous outrage, the police and local judge are proceeding against the family of Ikhlaq... Have the police gone mad?”
  Chand Khan alias Shan Khan spent 11 years in a jail in the 2002 Akshardham temple attack case before he was (…)

• The Kashmir Question

  30 October 2016

  by Binish Maryam
  The hasty departure of the Britishers from India in 1947 resulted in the emergence of two independent states, India and Pakistan. Though sharing a common history, the two states have been engaged in the most complex and sharply contested rivalry. The source of this contention has mainly been over the control of the erstwhile princely state of Kashmir. Since 1948 the state of Kashmir is divided into a Pakistani controlled part and an Indian controlled part. This de facto (…)

• Pakistan poses Problems too Serious to be left to Jingoist Anchors and Sangh Parivar Hawks

  30 October 2016, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Patriotic quibbling will not hide the basic fact—that Pakistan has boxed India into a tight corner. As happened in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack eight years ago, every muscle in our body politic twitches to take revenge against the rogue state. But a whole bunch of reality checks hold us back. Fortunately, the Prime Minister recognised this and resisted hawkish pressure from his own party parivar. That prevented the tight corner from developing into a trap.
  By now (…)

• Growing Inequality in Wealth and Income: Threat to Nation’s Stability

  30 October 2016, by Arun Kumar

  The new ‘World Wealth Report’ points to an increase in the number of crorepatis from 2.36 lakhs currently to 5.54 lakhs by 2025 (at the 2015 prices). But these figures are not reliable. In the Indian economy, a substantial amount of black incomes are generated annually and they lead to the accumulation of black wealth which is often not counted in estimates made by agencies. A large part of this wealth is held in real estate and it is hard to estimate its amount. Further, at present, there (…)

• India Changes Tack on RCEP Negotiations

  30 October 2016, by Kavaljit Singh

  Recently India abruptly changed tack by expressing its willingness to drop the three-tiered approach on tariff liberalisation under the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. This was communicated to trading partners at the fourth RCEP Ministerial Meeting held in Laos on August 5. India has been one of the key proponents of the three-tiered approach on tariff reduction under RCEP.
  What led India to change tack? The precise reasons behind this policy-shift (…)