Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• My Earliest Recollections / Allround Decadence and Ray of Hope / Iraq Crisis and Gujral Government

  6 November 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  My Earliest Recollections
  After N.C.’s demise on June 27, 1998 three pieces were recovered from his notes as evidence that he had started writing his autobiography. Since November 3 this year happens to be his 104th birth anniversary, we are carrying the following piece (written on March 5, 1990) on his birth and childhood.
  What’s the earliest memory I have about myself? I have tried to look back to catch a glimpse of what could possibly be the earliest scene I can (…)

• 

  Need of the Hour

  30 October 2017

  EDITORIAL
  At long last the dates for the Gujarat Assembly polls have been announced.
  Yesterday Chief Election Commissioner A.K. Joti disclosed to the media that voting for the crucial electoral contest in the State will take place or December 9 and 14—the polling will be held in the first phase for 89 seats across 19 districts, and in the second phase for 93 seats in 14 districts—and the results will be out on December 18.
  With the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of (…)

• My Plea to Trump and Putin

  30 October 2017

  by Mikhail Gorbachev
  (The following article by Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the leader of the USSR as its President from 1985 to 1991 (when the Soviet Union was still in existence), appeared in The Washington Post on October 11, 2017. It is being reproduced from there with due acknowledgement.)
  This December will mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the treaty between the Soviet Union and United States on the elimination of intermediate- and shorter-range missiles. This was the (…)

• Agra Residents veto Communal Utterings on Taj Mahal

  30 October 2017

  MUSINGS
  by Humra Quraishi
  with the election scene gaining momentum in Gujarat, the Congress should invite the erstwhile civil servants who spoke out against the Modi-led government in Gujarat...who’d dared to hit out at the communal slants and the biased moves of the Modi Government during the 2002 pogrom. In fact, these officers suffered severe setbacks but they were absolutely determined to expose the Modi Government. One of the first to speak out was R.B. Sreekumar—an IPS officer of (…)

• China’s Communist Party has come of Age — the West should Wake Up

  30 October 2017

  by Richard McGregor
  The Chinese Communist Party Congress displayed all the qualities beloved by Leninist institutions over the ages, of deep secrecy mixed with stern pageantry, leveraged in the service of reinforcing their leaders’ inviolate right to rule.
  Its closure on Wednesday (October 25, 2017) in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People also highlighted a familiar ritual, the unveiling of the membership and the ranking of the new leadership team, known as the Polit-Bureau Standing (…)

• Deterring the Dragon at Dokola: the Lessons of the Crisis

  30 October 2017

  by Gouri Sankar Nag
  What began in mid-June 2017 came somewhat unexpectedly to an end on August 28, 2017, when both China and India reached an agreement to withdraw their respective armed forces—hitherto taking up position face-to-face—from the Dokola area of the Doklam Plateau of Bhutan. This prima facie has dispersed the gloomy clouds hovering over of the South Asian sky for more than two months (73 days to be precise from June 16 to August 28, 2017) which saved the two Asian giants from (…)

• Will China Ever Democratise?

  30 October 2017

  by Bhartendu Kumar Singh
  This article was written before the Communist Party of China’s 19th Congress. But it is being belatedly published in view of the durability of its content.
  China’s emergence as a great power is quite established now. It is the world’s most important economic and military power after the US. The Chinese Renminbi is increasingly dominating the international currency market. China is executing some of the most fascinating great power projects like the Belt and Road (…)

• Doubts about the Election Commission

  30 October 2017, by Kuldip Nayar

  The Election Commission has never done it before and had developed an independent status since T.N. Seshan. He had given it a stature which was admired by the electorate. But the way in which the EC is dilly-dallying with the poll dates in Gujarat gives room to several conjectures. Some even see the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who hails from Gujarat.
  What it means is that the people have come to doubt the independence of the Commission. The Gujarat Assembly’s term ends on January (…)

• What Invasion has Shown Up • Need for World Publicity

  30 October 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  October 20 this year marked the fiftyfifth anniversary of the Chinese aggression on India. On this occasion we are carrying N.C.’s ‘New Delhi Skyline’ published in Mainstream seven days after the invasion.
  A fresh appraisal of values has overtaken New Delhi with the shock of the massive Chinese aggression on the far-flung frontier from Ladakh to NEFA.
  In the course of a single week, the nation faced the dangerous implications of a militarily powerful neighbour (…)

• Observing the 100th Death Anniversary of a Great Freedom Fighter—in Memory of Sufi Amba Prasad

  30 October 2017, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  This is a time for India to remember one of its greatest freedom fighters who had become a symbol of great courage in his lifetime. In addition, and this is very relevant to our times, he had also become a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity. Indeed his anniversary is being observed not just in India but also in Iran where he spent his last days continuing his valiant struggle even from there.
  Sufi Amba Prasad (1858-1917) was impri-soned thrice and was subjected to extreme (…)