Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• US Elections 2020: Is the show finally over for Donald Trump? | Judith Butler

  8 November 2020

  by Judith Butler *
  We know that Trump will try to do anything to stay in power, to avoid that ultimate catastrophe in life – becoming a ‘loser’
  5 November 2020
  There was never any question that Donald Trump would fail to make a gracious and swift exit. The only question for many of us was just how destructive he would become in the course of his downfall. I know “downfall” is usually reserved for kings and tyrants, but we are operating in that theatre, except here the king is at once (…)

• Who Can Resist The Magic Of Oratory | TJS George

  8 November 2020, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Donald Trump damaged American democracy as much as Boris Johnson damaged the British. But the intrinsic strength of the American and British systems will make their recovery easy. Unfortunately that cannot be said about India. The damage inflicted by Narendra Modi’s use of power to promote Hindutva partisanship on the one hand and his own persona on the other will not lend itself to easy repair. Not only has he been at it for six years with two more to go; he has been (…)

• Contours of ‘Freedom of Expression’ | Chittarvu Raghu

  8 November 2020

  by Chittarvu Raghu *
  The French Constitution discourages religious involvement in government affairs and policies of the State. The government is barred from involving in religious affairs. 1905 French law separates churches and the State. The form of secularism emphasises respect for freedom of thought and freedom of religion. An individual is at liberty to express his thought on a religion without any reasonable restriction.
  This concept of secularism propelled several violent acts (…)

• New Farm Laws: For Farmers or Corporates? | K N Ninan

  8 November 2020

  by K N Ninan *
  The new farm bills approved by the Parliament recently have led to widespread protests by farmers and opposition parties. The bills were steamrolled by the Central Government without any discussion in Parliament or consultation with stakeholders especially farmers and state governments even though agriculture is a state subject. Critics have questioned the justification for rushing through these controversial bills when the country is still battling the Corona-19 pandemic (…)

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  Tapan Bandyopadhyay and Marxian temper | Sankar Ray

  8 November 2020

  Tapan Bandyopadhyay passed away at a time when his intellectual engagement was needed in the emerging phenomenon of ‘Marxian Renaissance’. He died of lung cancer, exacerbated by Covid 19 infection on 28 October 2020 (he was born on 5 February 1946). In his last years, he used to introduce himself as an adherent of Marxian thoughts and theoretically distanced himself from Marxism and Marxists although he never considered Marxists as those on the other side of the barricade in the worldwide (…)

• How Neo-liberalism Works in India? | Arup Kumar Sen

  8 November 2020, by Arup Kumar Sen

  The ideology of neo-liberalism has time and space dimensions. While tracing the trajectory of neo-liberalism, Stephanie Lee Mudge observed: “The spread of neo-liberal policy is well established empirically, though temporal and geographic variations are matters of explanatory debate…neo-liberalism’s expressions in policy and politics are produced at the intersection of the intellectual, political and bureaucratic realms, generating not one neo-liberalism but many neo-liberalisms.” (See ‘The (…)

• India’s dementia and Lankan dreams | M K Bhadrakumar

  8 November 2020, by M K Bhadrakumar

  October 28, 2020
  Third-country cooperation is highly complex. Not even closest allies can sustain it all the time. Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, denied that oil interests influenced policy in Iraq, but archives show that the British government rushed troops to Mosul in 1918 to gain control of the northern oil fields in a sharp course reversal to recoup what had already been given away to France under the secret Sykes-Picot Accord of early 1916.
  Even before World War II had (…)

• Bihar Assembly Poll 2020: Tejashwi Has Transformed Political Agenda | Harihar Swarup

  8 November 2020

  by Harihar Swarup
  (India Press Agency, November 7, 2020)
  It’s an election like no other in Bihar. No street side addas, clamorous band bajaa or flag-waving processions. In a pandemic, rallies are still jam-packed, yet voters stand within chalk circles at polling booths. A lead actor for the last three tumultuous decades is missing from the poll scene. Lalu Prasad is in jail but his son Tejashwi has stepped up. They share the same blood, but their political blood group seems different. (…)

• Instituting An Alternative Mode of Employment Creation In Bihar Through Construction of Niche Structure | Sunil Ray

  8 November 2020

  by Sunil Ray *
  (The following is the revised version of my talk delivered on the topic on “Employment and Economic system” on the occasion of Bihar Assembly Election- 2020 organized by PAIRAVI, a Delh-based NGO (through webinar) on October 6, 2020).
  I
  Before discussing about the main theme of my presentation, I intend to share the following. After my presentation was over, one of the distinguished participants asked me why is it that unemployment issue never occupies the center-stage (…)

• Lockdown Lyric | L K Sharma

  8 November 2020, by L K Sharma

  by L K Sharma
  Going out is ruled out. Sit at home. Look not touch. Not even your own face.
  Moving images seen. Cries heard. Eyes wiped. 13th WhatsApp exchanged.
  It is 5 PM, 4 hours since easy-to-cook dish was made and had.
  Meal-in-a-minute packets will be finished before the lockdown ends. Then what? We shall see.
  Time for tea. Squirted a drop of milk from the semi-frozen pouch. The RO tap runs, water boils. Tea with what?
  Opened the fridge again, found the hoarded (…)