Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Reply to Anil Rajimwale’s “Rejoinder”

  14 October 2013

  COMMUNICATION
  Mr Rajimwale (Mainstream April 27, 2013) claims that I have not responded to the points he has made in his criticism of my book on Nikita Khrushchev’s infamous “Secret Speech”.
  I believe that I did reply to the points he made. But be that as it may, in this present reply I shall make a special effort to isolate and respond to every “point” Mr Rajimwale raises in his latest riposte.
  I would like to make one thing clear: I am not “defending Stalin”. I am defending the (…)

• Sea Change in National Polity

  9 October 2013, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Former Bihar CM, erstwhile Union Railway Minister and RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav has been sentenced to five years imprisonment and fined Rs 25 lakhs in the 17-year-old fodder scam case. Former Bihar CM Jagannath Mishra has also been sentenced and fined in the same case, though his sentence is for four years. Their convictions in the case had come last Monday (on September 30). With yesterday’s judgment in the Special CBI court in Ranchi, Laloo has automatically ceased to be a (…)

• The Experiment

  9 October 2013, by Mukul Dube

  One of the first things that came to mind when I read and heard about the recent violence in Muzaffarnagar was the many parallels with Gujarat in 2002. As I heard and read more, it became increasingly difficult to deny that history was repeating itself.
  I was visited by a no longer young woman whom I had taught thirtyfive years ago. From the distance of central Canada she too had seen that the events of Muzaffarnagar were much like those of Gujarat 2002.
  I showed her the announcement (…)

• Muzaffarnagar: Bloody Path of Political Agenda — Footprints of Evil Designs

  9 October 2013

  by BHASHA SINGH
  The following is a reportage by a senior journalist after a visit to UP’s riot-stricken Muzaffarnagar.
  ‘Nobody burnt those houses.’ In a very dim light and highly surcharged environment they accept only 100 houses were burnt, but they don’t know who turned them into ashes. All Muslims of the village are on the run, but they exactly don’t know why. What happened on the dark day of September 7 and 8, nobody is ready to share, but they add it all happened suddenly and the (…)

• Indo-Pak Relations: Going Back to the Future

  9 October 2013, by Uttam Sen

  As is often the case, the restrained acumen of the unassuming observer, rather than the bluff and bluster of the mover and shaker, is really winning the day in the subcontinent. A panelist on a public service broadcast station (Lok Sabha TV) was the first to point out that in today’s turning-point the subcontinent could emerge as the remedial exemplar. The thought could sound ambitious at a time when terror is returning on a global scale. Pakistan is on the easternmost periphery of the radar (…)

• Dalits Still There Where They Were

  9 October 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  A Dalit (untouchable) was killed. His house was destroyed and his family, including a 10-year-old, was thrown out. The upper-caste members did not like his audacity to hoist the national flag on the Independence Day at a disputed property which they had appropriated forcibly.
  Discrimination is the bane of India where the caste-prejudiced Hindus constitute 80 per cent of the population. The story of this Dalit came to light because one TV channel highlighted it. Otherwise, thousands of (…)

• Food Security with Economic Growth

  9 October 2013, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  Our economy is under pressure for the last three months. The rupee has been falling though the fall has been temporarily arrested for some time. Inflation shows no signs of reducing. And, the common man is restive as seen in the Chhattisgarh massacre. Yet, the weak condition of the economy should not prevent us from taking steps to ameliorate the conditions of the poor. I welcome the Food Security Act for this reason. The problem, however, is that this effort will be sustainable only if the (…)

• There is a Conspiracy of the Guilty; Dramatics Will Not Erase It

  9 October 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  It is too late in the day for Rahul Gandhi to act as though he is unaware of the major policy initiatives in his party. If he did not know about the Congress-led Ordinance to protect the criminally-tainted MPs, he was an unworthy Vice-President of the party. If he knew about the deliberations that led to the Ordinance and still proclaimed that it should be torn up, then he was playing games. What games? The people of the country were outraged by the Ordinance that belittled the (…)

• Gandhi for Today

  9 October 2013

  On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s one hundred and fortyfourth birth anniversary on October 2, 2013, we are reproducing the following excerpts from his writings and pronouncements.
  Gandhi for Today
  Soldiers drunk with the pride of physical strength loot shops and are not even ashamed to take liberties with women. The administration is powerless in the war time to prevent such happenings. The army fulfils their primary need, and they wink the eyes at their misdeeds...
  Hence arise (…)

• The Mahatma Who Suffered

  9 October 2013, by Upasana Pandey

  There is an old maxim that says: “Do not judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.” It means one should be judged through one’s capacity of suffering. Suffering prepares us to be compassionate to others. Suffering contains a particle of truth. Suffering enhances our ability to pray effectively. Praying is an instinctive human response to severe hardship. But effective prayer is a learned exercise. A song suggests: Pray when you are happy, pray when in sorrow. One should pray (…)