Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Ayodhya Verdict

  14 October 2010, by Badri Raina

  I
  Like many others who have made comment on the verdict of the Allahabad High Court on the several suits pertaining to title over the disputed site in Ayodhya, I also have available to me only the excerpts of the operative parts of the judgement(s) that have seen print thus far.
  Having read these with care, and repeatedly, alongwith most commentaries that have appeared, and listened with despair to the many debates on the electronic channels, after some excruciating hours of (…)

• Ayodhya Judgment - Response of All India Christian Council

  14 October 2010

  The following is the response of Dr John Dayal, Secretary-General, All India Christian Council, to the Ayodhya judgment on September 30, 2010.
  The judgment of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High court today on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute is patently based on populist and political sensitivities, rather than on points of law. The judges have given a legal cloak to popular Hindu mythology that the Lord Rama was born at the very spot where the mosque was built over the ruins (…)

• No Comment on Other Original Suit No. 5

  14 October 2010, by Mukul Dube

  The PDF file extracts from which are reproduced below can be had at http://rjbm.nic.in/. It is the “Judgment delivered by Hon’ble Dharam Veer Sharma, J”.
  It does not seem to me that elaborate comment is needed on the evident scheming, on the confounding of plaintiff and judge, and on the crafty intertwining of historical fact and mere belief. The treatment of limitation and of adverse possession is elegantly simple: chit main jeeta, pat tu hara. When Law does not help, make Deities pile (…)

• My Take on the Ayodhya Verdict

  14 October 2010

  by Sarah Kazmi
  Like so many other writers and commentators I am also going to start my take on the verdict with the confession that I haven’t read the 8000-page judgment. With that out of the way let’s move on to clearing the air regarding what exactly this judgment was about. It was aimed at the resolution of the 60-year-old Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi ownership dispute. It’s about the land on which the old Babri Masjid, which was demolished in 1992, stood and is believed to be the (…)

• Letter to President Obama

  14 October 2010, by A K Biswas

  Dear President Obama,
  Subject: Implementation of Concurrent Resolution of US Senate on Untouchability in India
  We have learnt from media reports that accompanied by the US’ First Lady, Michelle Obama, you are scheduled to pay a state visit to India in forthcoming November. I, on my own behalf as well as on behalf of over three hundred million people belonging to the Scheduled Caste (also called Dalits) and Scheduled Tribe communities, who are the underprivileged and discriminated (…)

• Karnataka Politics: The Road Taken and the Journey Ahead

  14 October 2010, by Sandeep Shastri

  Karnataka politics has been in the national limelight for a slew of reasons. The fact that the first BJP Government south of the Vindhyas has completed an eventful and tumultuous two years in office has by itself attracted the spotlight of attention. The periodic volcanoes that erupted in the political world created a heat that generated tremendous curiosity and excitement about the future of the State Government in particular and the direction of politics in Karnataka in general. The scams (…)

• Déjà Vu: FCRA comes to Haunt Church and NGOs Once Again

  14 October 2010, by John Dayal

  The more things change, the more they remain the same. Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s aphorism fits the Foreign Contribution Regulation Bill, whose many incarnations, including the latest last month, continue to haunt civil society and non-governmental organisations, including major initiatives not only of the Christian churches, but also of such biggies as Ma Amritanandamayi and Satya Sai Baba, both god-persons noted for their development work at the grassroots in South India as well.
  Not (…)

• Is ‘Inclusive Growth’ a New Stage before Socialism?

  14 October 2010, by Chaturanan Mishra

  This article is for requesting the readers of Mainstream, particularly those of the Left and Communists, to send their comments on my suggestion that history has created a new stage of ‘inclusive growth’ before socialism. I am of the opinion that China and Vietnam are also going through ‘inclusive growth’ and not socialism because they are allowing capitalists, including foreign capital, to help in their growth. Simul-taneously they are fighting poverty in their countries in a big way. They (…)

• Role of the Intellectuals in West Bengal

  14 October 2010

  by Debraj Bhattacharya
  Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri, in his reply to Sumanta Banerjee’s Open Letter to the intellectuals of West Bengal (Mainstream, September 4, 2007), has tried to convince us that the only way in which the movement for democracy can be strengthened is by supporting the TMC in its quest for power in the next Vidhan Sabha elections. Rai Chaudhuri, a radical Leftist, is of the opinion that firstly CPI-M must be overthrown by supporting the TMC and then “people will learn that (…)

• Musings of a Pensionjivi on Sumanta Banerjee’s Letter

  14 October 2010, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  I am touched by Sumanta Banerjee’s ‘Open Letter’ (Mainstream, September 11, 2010) where he described me as an intellectual by putting my name along with that of Mahashweta Devi. There is a boy in every old man. And that boy in me felt highly elated by this description. But the old man in me was not amused because that appellation was not quite correct. In Bengali an intellectual is called buddhijivi (one who lives by his intellect). But I do not live by my intellect. I live on pension. Hence (…)