Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Introspecting Today’s Divisive Politics to Preserve the ‘Idea of India’ Gandhi Lived and Died For

  17 July 2016

  BOOK REVIEW
  ‘INDIA NEEDS GANDHI MORE DESPERATELY NOW THAN EVER’
  by Aejaz Ahmad Wani
  Hindutva or Hind Swaraj by U.R. Ananthamurthy (translated from Kannada by Keerti Ramachandra and Vivek Shanbhag); Harper Perennial, Harper Collins; 2016; pages: 120+ xxii (foreward); Price: Rs 350 (Hardcover).
  Introduction
  In the wake of a recurrent rallying cry of Hindutva in the country, U.R. Ananthamurthy’s Hindutva or Hindu Swaraj is a chef-d’oeuvre that purports to light up the inherent (…)

• Changing Rights of Minorities in France

  17 July 2016

  by Meghna Kajla
  Citizenship in France and Debate on group Rights
  The term used citizenship/rights will be interchangeable for both.
  As T.H. Marshall explicates, citizenship is evolving and it’s a combination of three rights: civil, political and social. It is the combination of these three rights that makes citizenship. How does France define citizenship? The Republican French model of citizenship is based on the mixture of jus sanguinis and jus soli. (Steiner N., 2009) The country has (…)

• Understand the Outpouring of Grief and Rage in Kashmir

  17 July 2016

  India and its politicians must introspect as to why there has been such a mass outpouring of grief and support for Burhan Wani, a militant who was killed in an ‘encounter’. Already news reports confirm that over 30 unarmed protestors have been killed by the police and scores more have been injured. The death-toll itself indicates and reports confirm that the lethal force used by the security forces were absolutely dispropor-tionate. Some reports suggest that even hospitals and ambulances are (…)

• Terror in Dhaka, Ministerial Changes in Delhi

  9 July 2016, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The terror attack on a Spanish restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone of Gulshan late on July 1 has caused consternation not just in Bangladesh but South Asia as a whole and neighbouring India in particular. It resulted in the death of 28 persons, including six gunmen, who had stormed into the Holey Artisan Restaurant to hold all those present there as hostage. Those killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one American, a 19-year-old Indian student and two Bangladeshis (one (…)

• Gulbarg Society Judgement: From Retribution to Restoration

  9 July 2016

  by Binish Maryam
  Ethnic violence leaves in its wake devastation on the one hand and deep psychological trauma on the other. The suffering of the victims becomes part of the collective psyche of the society. The strategies that the Indian state generally adopts to build peace in the post-violence scenario are not well equipped to take care of the antagonisms, grievances and pain that constitute the collective consciousness of the conflicting communities. Often monetary compensation and (…)

• Quality of Journalism

  9 July 2016, by Kuldip Nayar

  When l was studying in a journalism school abroad, l was told by my professor that a news story should be like a skirt: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be attractive. Over the years, the story has assumed the shape of pontification and inevitably padded.
  When senior journalists are kicking the bucket, the question that stares at us is: what kind of journalism will be there in future? Of course this is not confined to India. All countries, whether in the West or the (…)

• Formidable Journalist, Outstanding Chronicler

  9 July 2016, by H K Dua

  TRIBUTE
  In the death of Inder Malhotra, India has lost its most outstanding chronicler.
  As a young man of 17, Inder Malhotra was there somewhere in the multitudes of people who went up Raisina Hill to watch the birth of free India at the stroke of midnight of August 14-15, 1947.
  From then, the careers of both India as a free nation and Inder as an aspiring journalist ran parallel to each other—until Saturday (June 11) when he breathed his last.
  Over nearly 70 years, Inder watched (…)

• A Distinguished Political Reporter

  9 July 2016, by S Nihal Singh

  TRIBUTE
  Krishan Kumar Katyal, who died in New Delhi on Wednesday (June 8) at 88, was a distinguished political reporter who had a nose for news, persistence in following up on tips and a talent for cultivating sources in political parties as well as several wings of the government. In the world of journalism, he was universally known by his initials and took jokes on KKK, matching the infamous Ku Klux Klan in America, in his stride.
  We were colleagues on the political reporting team of (…)

• Assam Election Results 2016: Challenges to Pluralist Ethos

  9 July 2016

  by Ram Puniyani
  This time around (2016 elections) the BJP has managed to come to power in Assam, though as a coalition with its allies. Its vote-share this time came down to 29.5 per cent from the earlier 36.5 per cent (2014); still because of the strategically stitched alliances it beat the Congress in the number of seats won. The BJP’s election appeal was centred on the divisive issue of Bangaldeshi immigrants. It took care to regard the three per cent native Muslims on the ground of (…)

• Outcome of Assam Elections and its Impact on Other North-Eastern States

  9 July 2016

  by Kadayam Subramanian
  The BJP, which fared badly in the recently concluded State Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Union Territory of Puducherry, nevertheless did remarkably well in the Assam State Assembly elections. The party won 86 out of 126 seats in the State Assembly with its allies—the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Organi-sation (BPO). The reasons for the remarkable success call for an analysis.
  The basic issue of contestation in the 2016 (…)