Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• High Court Verdict on the Babri Mosque: Implications for the Rule of Law

  19 October 2010, by Arshi Khan

  In his commentary on the Greek Political Thought, C.L. Wayper says: if the king is virtuous, law becomes unnecessary; if the king is not virtuous, law becomes useless. In today’s terms, it can be referred to as the endorsement of the Rule of Law and Constitutionalism which are the backbones of democratic governance particularly in a plural society like India. The Rule of Law was considered inevitable for the unity and integrity of the country by thwarting the menace of ‘preferred interests’ (…)

• BJP’s Dangerous Politics

  19 October 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  One of my eaerliest reporting experiences was the great Calcutta killing of 1946. Fierce communal passions were unleashed and thousands were done to death on both sides in the course of a couple of days. But behind that gory carnage was the fight for the city of Calcutta: who should get it? Pakistan or India? Religious beliefs are made use of to rouse mass anger among innocent people, but those who whip up such passions do so only for political gains.
  In our (…)

• Retrograde Verdict Rewards Hindutva Zealots

  19 October 2010, by Anand Teltumbde

  The much awaited Ayodhya verdict pronounced by three judges of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on September 30, 2010 stunned the entire progressive establish-ment of the country. All the three independent versions of the judges converged in relying on the faith and belief of the Hindus forsaking the established principles of law, and vindicated the stand of the Hindutva movement which brought about the destruction of the Babri Masjid. As a compromise solution, again sans any (…)

• Ayodhya: Judiciary — the Latest Victim

  19 October 2010, by Diptendra Raychaudhuri

  On October 30, 2010, what the nation was waiting for was a verdict from the three learned judges of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court. What we heard at the end of the day was a compromise formula dished out by two of the three judges. They ordered division of the disputed part of the land between the Hindus and Muslims. The third judge, however, was bold enough to gift the whole land to the Hindus. The way the judges played it safe by bowing before faith, of course of the majority (…)

• Vindicating Faith, Undermining Law : New Socialist Initiative On the Ayodhya Judgement

  19 October 2010

  While welcoming the restraint shown by the people from different communities in recent times and their desire to turn a new page of life, the New Socialist Initiative (NSI) is of the strong opinion of the need to judge whether this peace has come with honour or been achieved under coercion. The NSI, a collective aimed at regeneration of revolutionary socialist politics, feels deeply concerned about the recent develop-ments on the legal front around Ayodhya which has the possibility of (…)

• A Failure of Leadership

  19 October 2010, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Is there a curse upon India? Why do monstrous problems attack us all at once, and why does each one of them get more petrifying by the day instead of getting resolved as in most other countries?
  The Commonwealth Corruption Games, the explosion of popular anger in Kashmir, the unrelenting terror spectre, the Maoist campaign, China’s unfriendly posturings and, in a bizarre instance of timing, a Court verdict on a sensitive religious issue that has been hanging fire for (…)

• Indo-Pak Relations at Crossroads

  19 October 2010

  by M.M. Khajooria
  The meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Yousuf Reza Gilani, on the sidelines of the last SAARC conclave in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu was billed as “routine”. It was largely seen as a concession to the world community’s concern for the continuation of the India-Pak peace process. To everyone’s surprise the meeting identified “the trust deficit” as the core obstacle in successful pursuance of the Indo-Pak peace process and (…)

• Let us Break the Myths — Kashmir Boils Again!!

  19 October 2010

  by Khalid Wasim Hassan
  Kashmir boils again has been the headline carried by the national dailies and TV news channels for more than a month now. Fiftynine people, mostly young boys, including an eight-year-old, lost their lives while protesting on the streets. The Kashmir Valley has been under curfew for the last two months. This year the protests erupted as a result of a fake encounter in which three innocent people were killed by the Army at Machil village and they were labelled as (…)

• From Killing of Innocents to Eight-point Formula

  19 October 2010, by Balraj Puri

  What impact would the eight-point formula, announced by the Government of India on Kashmir, have on the turmoil that has gripped the Valley since June 11 when an innocent teenager was killed by a teargas shell? Why has it happened during this time of the year when tourism was showing the promise of a new record—when all house boats and hotel rooms were fully booked?
  This year also set a new record when 40,000 Kashmiri Pandits, mostly from outside the Valley where they had migrated in (…)

• Paradise Lost in Terror

  19 October 2010, by S.K. Dutta

  “If There Is Paradise On Earth,
  It Is Here, It Is Here, It Is Here”
  Nothing can better explain the beauty and culture of Kashmir then the above quote from Nishant Bagh which today is in turmoil with decades of violence, militancy, terror, aided and abided by Pakistan with vested political parties playing in it to keep the problem simmering. The last two months have seen the government machinery totally failing in Srinagar and the government in Delhi absolutely clueless as to how to (…)