Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Solution to the Kashmir Problem

  2 August 2016, by Sandeep Pandey

  On July 8, 2016, the Supreme Court said that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, in force in parts of the North-East and J&K, cannot be an excuse for extrajudicial killing—whenever such allegations surface they have to be investigated regardless of whether the person is a dreaded criminal, terrorist or an insurgent. On the same day a young militant, Burhan Wani, was killed in an encounter with the security forces. We don’t know whether it was a case of extrajudicial killing. (…)

• The Supreme Court Speaks: Ending impunity for the Armed Forces

  2 August 2016, by S G Vombatkere

  In a historic ruling, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice U.U. Lalit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court have spoken out in favour of democracy. The judgment came on a plea by hundreds of families in the North-Eastern State of Manipur for a probe by a Special Investigation Team into 1528 cases of alleged fake encounters involving the Army and the police.
  In particular, by saying: “It does not matter whether the victim was a common person or a militant or a terrorist, nor does it matter whether the (…)

• Let’s Await Court’s Ruling

  2 August 2016, by Kuldip Nayar

  There is a vast difference between perception and evidence. When Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi says that the RSS is responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, he is conveying the general perception. In fact, the then Home Minister, Sardar Patel, imposed a ban on the RSS which he withdrew when the organisation gave in writing that it was only a cultural outfit. However, the perception has remained till today.
  The BJP, which is said to be a political wing of the RSS, has (…)

• A Tale of Two Vehicles: Sadhvi’s Motorcycle and Rubina’s Car

  2 August 2016

  by Ram Puniyani
  Can there be two types of justice delivery system in the same country? This question came to one’s mind with the U-turn taken by the NIA in the cases related to terror acts in which many Hindu names were involved. Now the NIA in a fresh charge-sheet (May 13, 2016) has dropped the charges against Pragya Singh Thakur, has lightened the ones against Colonel Purohit and others. Along with this new line of the NIA it is being stated that Hemant Karkare’s investigation in these (…)

• Fighting Corruption, Communal Fascism: Swaraj Abhiyan’s Perspective

  2 August 2016

  Swaraj Abhiyan, launched by anti-corruption activists on April 14, 2015 as a platform for participatory democracy through alternative politics, is organising its Second National Convention at New Delhi on July 30-31, 2016. In the last 15 months, it has taken five major initiatives towards its goal— (a) Jai Kisan Andolan for kisan and rural India; (b) Shiksha Swaraj about issues of education and youth employment; (c) Anti-Corruption Team to support RTI activists and PIL to fight corruption; (…)

• Historic Departures

  2 August 2016

  by Vinita Chandra
  Swaraj Abhiyan arose out of a historic split in the AAP, a party which itself was the product of a ‘split’ in opinions among the leaders of the India Against Corruption movement. Answers to the following two questions may bring insights for understanding the nature of Indian politics—What do these two splits signify? And what makes these two splits historic?
  The first split was effected due to a divergence of opinions between Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal. While Anna (…)

• A Strong National Alliance is Needed for Survival of Farmers

  2 August 2016

  by Avik Saha
  Today, farmers and farming are in crisis. Farming has become a loss-making proposition. Although input costs of farming are continuously increasing and cost of living is also rising, prices of agricultural produce are not. One calamity like drought, hailstorm, flood and the farmer’s backbone is broken. Wallowing in debt, the farmer is forced to commit suicide.
  The reason for this condition of farmers is not fate, vagaries of nature or machinations of the market economy. At (…)

• Bangladesh: Look at the Iceberg and Not its Tip

  2 August 2016

  by Aparupa Bhattacherjee
  Do the recent attacks in Bangladesh (by seven young men in a Dhaka café killing several foreigners and the subsequent bomb blast on the day of Eid) signify the tip of a far larger iceberg? Worse, are they the tips of different icebergs that are coming to form a perfect storm?
  Are the radicalisation of the youth, attacks on minority communities and violence against liberals in Bangladesh symbolising a deeper problem? Do the recent commentaries on the subject focus (…)

• Debate on Uniform Civil Code

  2 August 2016, by Ambrose Pinto

  When the Prime Minister of the country makes a request to the Law Commission to examine the case of uniform civil code, like many others I wonder whether there are ulterior motives given his commitment to a definite ideology. Modi is a representation and he represents a definite school of thought. When he decides to request the Law Commission to provide him with inputs on the uniform civil code, he may have reasons or a hidden agenda. In the past there have been people with a liberal outlook (…)

• National Policy on Education

  2 August 2016

  by S.N. Sahu
  The new National Policy on Education begins its Introduction by referring to the Gurukul System of Education of ancient India which never permitted development of an atmosphere for asking questions and which permitted only a chosen few to get access to education. The Gurukul system smacked of an authoritarian approach where learning was imposed from above without any emphasis on critical enquiry. Therefore, it is not at all appropriate to hark back to the Gurkul system of yore (…)