Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Refreshing Analysis of Coalition Governments in the Current Scenario

  27 March 2012

  BOOK REVIEW
  PREETPAL SINGH
  Dynamics of Party System and Coalition Governments in India by Ranpal Singh and Tejvir Singh (eds.); Alfa Publications, New Delhi; 2012; pp. XVIII + 143; Rs 700.
  The Constitution-makers had set up a parliamentary system of government in India. But that needed a two-party system. Hence, the Single-Ballot-Simple-Majority System had been introduced instead of the Proportional Representation System to ensure the same. But the historic role of the Congress in the (…)

• There’s Writing on the Wall for Dynasties; will the Desirable Meet the Possible?

  27 March 2012, by T J S George

  In our elections, nobody is voted in; always somebody is voted out and somebody else steps into the vacancy by default.
  This was the pattern since the Emergency. Indira Gandhi was so dictatorial during those two years that she was thrown out humiliatingly. The Janata Party then took office, but performed so miserably that it could last only two years. In the 1980 election people threw out that lot. And who came in? The only available alternative, Indira Gandhi.
  More graphic is the (…)

• Where Should Higher Education Reform Begin?

  27 March 2012

  COMMUNICATION
  NAYA BIHAR—DAWN OF A NEW ERA
  On carefully reading of the article captioned, “New Questions in Naya Bihar: The Cry of Vernacular Academics” (Mainstream, Vol L, No 10, February 25, 2012) by Dev N. Pathak, I feel a genuine urge to place on record my personal experience. The author’s pointed reference to the eminence and sarcasm of Prof Nawal Kishor Chaudhury of the Department of Economics at a two-day national seminar is indeed interesting.
  “I wonder whether Nitish Kumar is (…)

• UPA in the Grip of a Fresh Crisis

  20 March 2012, by SC

  The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is in the grip of a fresh crisis with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee slamming her party’s nominee in the Union Cabinet, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, for having taken in his maiden Railway Budget the first initiative in 10 years at “fare rationalisation”—making train fares 10-20 per cent higher for all classes according to the distance being travelled, the “fare rationali-sation” models in two forms enabling the Railways to earn Rs 4000 crores (…)

• Economic Survey 2011 - 2012 : India under the Shadow of Neoliberalism

  20 March 2012, by Girish Mishra

  Even though the neoliberal dispensation has collapsed all over the world, its votaries in the corridors of power in India are behaving like the proverbial boy on the burning deck. They believe in the mantra of TINA (there is no alternative). It becomes quite obvious by casting even a cursory glance on the cover of the Economic Survey 2011-12, placed in the two Houses of Parliament on March 15. It, in the words of the authors, “depicts long and short run Phillips curves which highlight the (…)

• New Political Arithmetic in UP

  20 March 2012, by Arup Kumar Sen

  In the just-concluded Assembly elections in UP, the Samajwadi Party (SP) stormed into power with an absolute majority, winning 224 seats out of 403. Binary categories of political analysis are grossly inadequate to understand the dynamics of political change in the State. Though Maya-wati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was ousted by the SP, she was able to retain the loyalty of her core vote-bank of the Jatav caste and get 26 per cent of the vote-share, just four per cent less than that of the (…)

• Power Rests with the States

  20 March 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  State elections may not predict the shape of next the Lok Sabha in 2014, but they do reflect the mood of the electorate. UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur which went to the polls indicate that the ruling Congress is declining rapidly. The party is nowhere in UP despite Indira Gandhi’s family descending on the state in full strength. Punjab and Uttarakhand, which were expected to go to the Congress, have slipped from its hands. The party has been routed in Goa and the only consolation (…)

• Did Bharata Build Bharat Varsha in Vain? —Elections Raise a Legitimacy Question

  20 March 2012, by T J S George

  India is a model to the world in the management of free and fair elections. But in terms of what comes out of this massive exercise, India is an argument against adult franchise. Many of those who get elected are so unworthy that the legiti-macy of democracy itself becomes questionable.
  As many as 103 candidates in UP (35 per cent of the total) had criminal cases against them. Some 30 candidates were contesting from jail. These included notorious mafia bosses. One candidate was housed (…)

• Youth, Image and Counter-reaction: Who Managed Better in UP?

  20 March 2012

  by VIVEK KUMAR SRIVASTAVA
  There are many factors which have contributed to the spectular success of the Samajwadi Party in the UP election. In the usual analyses the role of Akhilesh Yadav is being recognised. It is true that he galvanised the party towards success but many unexplored, hidden factors that lay in the background and which he cultivated in a sustained manner helped him to lead the party to the final destination while others failed miserably.
  This election helped to (…)

• NCTC and RPF Act: Not Compatible with Federal Relations

  20 March 2012

  by HAMID HUSSAIN
  The recent controversies on setting up a National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC) to operate under the Intelligence Bureau and the proposed amendment of the RPF Act, 1957 have thrown open the Centre-State issue once again. The credit for this goes to the charismatic leader, Naveen Patnaik, the three-time Chief Minister of Odisha, who took the lead in raising the issue of the NCTC with the Prime Minister and garnered support of ten more Chief Ministers such as Nitish Kumar, (…)