Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Caste System — Living Reality in Politics and Administration

  20 July 2011, by Syed Shahabuddin

  Caste is a social phenomena, an undeniable reality, because of its deep roots in our history, psychology and politics. Caste identity springs from birth, is strengthened by upbringing, education and marriage, and even in the process of finding one’s place in the larger society a man can change his religion or speak a language other than his mother-tongue but just as he cannot change the colour of his skin, he cannot change his caste.
  The Constitution prohibits discrimination by the (…)

• Valuable and Out-of-Box Study on Panchayati Raj

  20 July 2011

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Preet Pal Singh
  Local Democracy and Good Governance: Five Decades of Panchayati Raj by Ranbir Singh and Surat Singh (eds.); Deep and Deep Publication, New Delhi; Rs 1280.
  Local democracy refers to the local level institutions, and not to those operating at the provincial/State and federal/national/Union levels. A sine qua non of local democracy is the devolution of powers, funds and responsibilities from the highest to the lowest level. In other words, local democracy (…)

• The Farce of Bhimshakti and Shivshakti

  20 July 2011, by Anand Teltumbde

  History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
  —Karl Marx
  The famous quotation of Marx from The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, which comes in reference to the rule of Napoleon I and thereafter of his nephew, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III), actually runs as follows: “Hegel remarks some-where that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” What if it (…)

• Ban on Temple Entry for Dalit — A New Charter Needed

  20 July 2011, by A K Biswas

  A Hindu temple at village Ranapada in Puri district of Orissa on June 25, 2011 refused entry for worship by P.L. Punia, the Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes. The Commission is the national watchdog for safeguarding the dignity and interests of the 200 million Scheduled Castes. Undoubtedly he was ill-advised to go to the temple, thereby inviting indignity upon himself. By his misadventure the Chairman has subjected himself to untoucha-bility and humiliation. Under Article (…)

• Siddhartha Shankar Sibal

  20 July 2011, by Mukul Dube

  Recently I was invited to photograph a protest meeting organised at Jantar Mantar in Delhi by the AISA, the student wing of the CPI-ML (Liberation). Their comrades—including Sandeep Singh, now National President of the AISA and a former President of the JNU Students’ Union —had been beaten up, on June 24, 2011, by Congress toughs who rushed out of the Ranchi hotel in which Kapil Sibal was staying, on hearing the slogans of the AISA group. Sibal is said to have held a press conference to (…)

• Surging Rise in Prices and Manmohanomics

  20 July 2011, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  In my student days, I had read William Hazlitt’s essay, “On the Ignorance of the Learned”. Now, we find conspicuous example of purblindness in our learned Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. He is acclaimed by the G-8 summiteers as a great economist. Since he accepted the Western paradigm of development, his advice, possibly, suits them well. In India, his expertise has resulted in (i) the creation of a small island—better say, an island of a few wealthy families—amid an expanding sea of (…)

• Peculiar Political Situation

  20 July 2011

  COMMUNICATION
  The sustained resistance to government acquisition of their lands for the POSCO composite project (port + steel plant + power plant) in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha by the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) over the past five years has gained national, even international, attention since June 2011.
  Politicians of certain political parties in Odisha have joined issue on the side of PPSS even while there is a United Action Committee (UAC) of persons who are (…)

• Madhya Pradesh Activists Attacked

  20 July 2011

  COMMUNICATION
  Former MLA of Madhya Pradesh and social activist Sunilam was recently attacked by 15 goondas in Chindwara district (MP). Before the attack he was involved in mobilisation of peaceful protest by villagers adversely affected by land acquisition for two controversial projects in this area. Aradhna Bhargava, a leader of project affected farmers, was also attacked at the same time. Both activists were seriously injured.
  Strong steps should be taken to punish the attackers. (…)

• Welcome Rulings from the Highest Judiciary

  10 July 2011, by SC

  As we go to press, news has come that Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran has tendered his resignation from the Union Cabinet. In fact his continuance in the Manmohan Singh Govern-ment had become untenable after the CBI sub-mitted, on July 6, its 71-page status report to the Supreme Court (under the latter’s directive) wherein it was made clear that Maran, as the Union Telecom Minister between 2004 and 2007, had misused his office to force the promoter of the mobile phone company Aircel, (…)

• Professor K. Jayashankar: A Tribute

  10 July 2011, by C.H. Hanumantha Rao

  With the passing away of Professor K. Jayashankar on June 21, the movement for the formation of Telangana State has lost the foremost academic and intellectual actively working for this cause for over half-a-century. The void created by his demise cannot be filled except by imparting to the whole movement the values he embodied: a firm commitment to the cause of separate Statehood combined with a highly informed and reasoned approach to the many issues faced by the movement.
  In many (…)