Mainstream Weekly

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• 2024 General Election: Farmers’ Agitation and the Reshaping of the Electoral Landscape in Haryana | Mahabir Jaglan

  25 May 2024

  Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has had a dream run in Haryana during last two Loksabha elections. It was a marginal political force till 2009 polls in the state as then it could garner only 12 percent votes and that too in alliance with the regional party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). But in 2014 it contested the election in alliance with Haryana Janhit Congress and won 7 out of 10 parliamentary seats in the state with a quantum jump in its vote share as it got 41 percent of total votes (…)

• Booth wise data on total number of votes polled not made public - Letter to Chief Justice of India | Lubna Sarwath

  25 May 2024, by Lubna Sarwath

  21 May 2024 Hyderabad
  To The Chief Justice of India Supreme Court of India New Delhi
  To The Chief Election Commissioner The Election Commission of India New Delhi
  Dear Chief Justice of India, May Peace be upon you Your Honour,
  Sub: - Compliance of Supreme Court Order in WRIT PETITION (CIVIL No 990 of 2021)KISHAN CHAND JAIN VS UNION OF INDIA & ORS DT 19.08.2023- Suo Moto uploading of FORM 17C PART I ’ACCOUNT OF VOTES RECORDED’ in the website https://www.eci.gov.in/ - (…)

• Nadda on BJP-RSS relations: Father, Son and Political Equations | Ram Puniyani

  25 May 2024, by Ram Puniyani

  As the election season (April-May 2024) is in progress there are observations by some that this time RSS volunteers (swayamsevaks) are not on the field to help the BJP for electoral mobilization. So far, in most elections barring the one of 1984, in the aftermath of anti Sikh pogrom. There are many guesses about the role of RSS combine in the elections this time. In this context the interview of Mr. J.P.Nadda, given to IE (May 19, 2024) claims that RSS is a cultural and social organization (…)

• Divine Status of Modi | J P Gadkari

  25 May 2024, by J P Gadkari

  May 24, 2024
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, at last, decided to confer on himself a ’DIVINE’ status and publicly announce it by saying: "I believe that I have been blessed by some divine power, which has made me a medium for public welfare. Over the years, my belief has strengthened that God has chosen me to fulfil a special responsibility" he added.
  Mr Modi said this in an interview to News18, a Hindi edition of the Network18, .
  In India, we have many examples of such people (…)

• Political Economy of Mass Higher Education: A Warning Call | Arup Maharatna

  25 May 2024, by Arup Maharatna

  Unlike terms like ‘mass/universal primary education’ or ‘higher education’ which have been in global vogue for at least three preceding centuries, ‘mass higher education’ is radically new and certainly a post-WWII notion. For example, global gross enrolment ratio in higher (or tertiary) education (HE) was only 10.1 per cent in 1972, but it jumped to well above 40 over next fifty years. Most people take this – so-called massification of HE - as a given (immutable) historical fact too welcome (…)

• 2024 General Election Rallies ... | Humra Quraishi

  25 May 2024, by Humra Quraishi

  Together with the soaring temperatures, prices of everyday essentials are soaring high too. Food items and fruits and veggies that could keep us somewhat intact are going beyond one’s grasp. Turning the frail frailer and the able-bodied just about a heap of bones!
  This combination of the rising temperatures together with the inability to cope with the connected onslaughts, has resulted the obvious decline in the electioneering around. I’m purposely not dragging in the so called ‘star (…)

• Letter to Minister for Railways regarding safety and security of railway employees | Binoy Viswam

  25 May 2024, by Binoy Viswam

  Binoy Viswam Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
  116, North Avenue New Delhi - 110 001 Mob: 9605766702 E-mail: binoyviswam55[at]gmail.com
  To, Respected Shri Ashwini Vaishnav ji,
  Date: 19th May, 2024
  Shri Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister for Railways, Government of India
  I write to you to bring your notice towards a matter for importance concerning the safety and security of railway employees. People and organisations concerned with the developments have brought to my attention several (…)

• Decolonising museums is not as easy as you’d think | Hemanth Kadambi

  25 May 2024

  May 16, 2024
  Museums in former colonial powers face challenges in calls for decolonising their collections, but the issue acquires a different hue in India.
  When India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced the building of the “largest museum in the world” in Delhi, the objective was to celebrate bharatiya sabhyata (Indian civilisation) and its 5,000-year existence.
  This grand enterprise will be called, ‘Yugey Yugeen Bharat’, or, ‘Bharat, the epochal, the eternal’.
  India already (…)

• The growing promise of cancer vaccines | Bidyut Sarkar

  25 May 2024

  May 19, 2024
  No magic bullet is in sight yet, but three vaccines for particular skin and lung cancer types have advanced to the last phase of clinical trials
  A cure for cancer — which is second only to cardiovascular diseases in its contribution to the global burden of disease — has long been a dream.
  While no magic bullet is yet in sight, three vaccines for particular skin and lung cancer types have advanced to the last stage of clinical trials in recent months.
  If successful, these (…)

• Making of the Indian Constitution | L.S. Hardenia

  25 May 2024, by L. S. Herdenia

  The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of India took place in the constitution Hall, New Delhi on Monday the 9th December, 1946 at eleven of the clock.
  Acharya J.B. Kripalani has requested Dr. Sachchidananda Sinha to take the chair as temporary chairman. Perhaps he anticipated that a time may come when some elements might demand to change the constitution Dr. Sinha warned "my prayer is that the constitution that you are going to plan may similarly be reared for immortality if the (…)