Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Aung San Kuu Kyi: A “Dissident” Speaks

  8 October 2011

  by PARMINDER S. BHOGAL
  Delivering this year’s BBC Reith Lecture, Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader in Burma, described herself as a “dissident” and a “democracy activist” who was not merely thinking of “replacing one government with another” or “simply agitating for particular changes in the system”, but one who was “working and living for a cause that was the sum of the aspirations of our people which are not, after all, so very different from the aspirations of the people (…)

• Talking to Maoists

  8 October 2011, by Nirmalangshu Mukherji

  It is reported that the decades-old talks with Naga insurgent groups has made some progress recently.1 One reason why talks have a chance in these cases is that separatism comes in layers and degrees: there are numerous real points between complete separation and total subjugation, at least in a progressive federal structure.
  This condition does not apply to the Maoist upheaval primarily because the Maoist movement is not a separatist movement. Maoists demand seizure of state power by (…)

• He was Unpurchasable

  8 October 2011, by H Y Sharada Prasad

  ON C.N. CHITTA RANJAN’S 90TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY
  The ninetieth birth anniversary of outstanding journalist C.N. Chitta Ranjan took place last week—on September 29. Born in Ooty on September 29, 1921, he breathed his last in New Delhi on August 2, 1990. Besides Working in several newspapers and journals he was Mainstream’s first editor. We remember him by reproducing the pieces written by his friends, colleagues and admirers after his demise in 1990. Most of these appeared in this journal’s (…)

• President’s Letter

  8 October 2011

  PRESIDENT REPUBLIC OF INDIA
  August 3, 1990
  Dear Smt Chitta Ranjan
  I am grieved to learn of the passing away of Sri Chitta Ranjan. We have been close associates in the Journalists’ Union for several decades and hence for me it is a personal loss.
  The gentlest of persons, he was an intrepid upholder of the rights of the downtrodden. I always looked forward to meeting him and hearing his assessment of affairs, national or international.
  Please accept my sincerest condolences in (…)

• Our First Editor

  8 October 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  N.C.
  It was in 1960-61 that I came to know Chitta Ranjan who was then working in The Hindustan Times. I had met him earlier in Madras where he was desperately trying to run a daily brought out by a working journalists’ cooperative. When that project folded up, Chitta Ranjan moved to Delhi.
  When we first met, he was a staunch Congressman, an ardent follower of Kamaraj. I was in search of a forum where there could be dialogue between Congress opinion and the Left, to start with; and then (…)

• Symbol of Moral Courage

  8 October 2011

  by K.R. SUNDAR RAJAN
  I must confess I had serious differences with Chitta Ranjan on national and international issues but these did not in any way undermine my deep regard for him. Indeed, his intellectual and professional honesty was always a source of inspiration to me.
  We worked together in the student movement during Gandhiji’s Quit India struggle. He was a quiet but very efficient campaigner, exhibiting great maturity of judgement even when he was so young. We were both arrested (…)

• A Saga of Struggle

  8 October 2011, by S.K. Pande

  It was Friday, August 3, amidst the cacophony of a variety of sounds in busy Karolbagh, in a small apartment, with a few books, very few belongings and not even a phone, leave alone a car, a small modest man, a common person’s editor lay peacefully in deep sleep. The small apartment, the quietness and modesty of the family and the discipline were reminiscent of that seemingly small but giant colossus, an editor who inspired but did not roar, an editor who seldom surrendered his viewpoints, (…)

• Remembering C.N. Chitta Ranjan on his 90th Birth Anniversary

  8 October 2011, by Sumit Chakravartty

  The following was written last week just before C.N. Chitta Ranjan’s 90th birth anniversary on September 29, 2011.
  C.N. Chitta Rajan’s ninetieth birth anniversary is being befittingly observed on September 29, 2011. All his relatives, friends, admirers and those fortunate to have been groomed by him in the profession of journalism will remember him that day as a person who, imbued with exceptional idealism, dedication and sense of purpose (values that have indeed become rare in today’s (…)

• Fraud Crusaders

  8 October 2011, by C.N. Chitta Ranjan

  From C.N. Chitta Ranjan’s Pen
  For long years now, the debate on “Freedom of the Press” has been proceeding on the wrong track. This is not fortuitous. The loudest participants, who get the widest publicity, are defenders of the status quo in the control of the structure of the print media, particularly the big newspapers, the chains and groups.
  The Express episode, which in the last few months has produced a Niagara of words, offers the most dramatic illustration of how the issues (…)

• Bengal Bye-Elections: Message for CPI-M

  8 October 2011, by Barun Das Gupta

  Both the bye-elections to the West Bengal Assembly held late last month were won by the ruling Trinamul Congress. The TMC wrested the Basirhat (North) constituency from the CPI-M by a margin of 30,941 votes. In the Assembly elections a few months ago, the CPI-M had retained the seat by polling 3943 votes more than the TMC. In just four months’ time, the TMC has gained 34,884 more votes.
  At Bhowanipur (Kolkata), Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was the candidate. Her winning (…)