Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  BJP on a Sticky Wicket

  14 October 2017, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Jay Shah, the son of the second most important person in the country, BJP President Amit Shah, is in the spotlight at present.
  A report in The Wire website has pointed out that the turnover of Temple Enterprise Private Limited, owned by Jay Shah, grew from Rs 50,000 in March 2015 to Rs 80.5 crores in 2015-16; in the same year it got access to an unsecured loan of Rs 50.78 crores from the financial services firm, KIFS.
  Incidentally, when the report questioned the sharp rise in (…)

• Indian Muslims on Trial Again

  14 October 2017, by Shamsul Islam

  According to press reports, Yoga guru and Patanjali founder Ramdev, while participating in a TV show (September 30, 2017), said cow urine should be acceptable to Muslims too as something used for treatment. He went to the extent of claiming: “It is written in the Quran that cow urine can be used for treatment.”
  Without going into the debate whether Ramdev was honest in his reference to the Quran or not, one thing is sure. This Hindutva flag-post, Ramdev, a billionaire baba, believes that (…)

• A part-time Chief Minister

  14 October 2017, by Kuldip Nayar

  Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that he would be taking five days off in a month to attend to his duties as the head priest of the Gorakhnath Temple. Television networks ran this part of his speech only once. Either the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) forced the channels to take the story off or the Chief Minister himself felt so embarrassed that he withdrew his statement. That could be the reason why the speech did not see the light of the day in print.
  What the Yogi (…)

• Ironies have Begun to Hit as Never Before!

  14 October 2017, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  We are talking of bullet trains when even our slow moving trains have begun derailing. This year hundreds were killed in train accidents, not to overlook the latest tragedy at Mumbai’s Elphinstone station where dozens were trampled and injured on the connecting foot bridge... Horrifying are the conditions on the railway platforms where stench overtakes the rest of the bandobast, in terms of the strays loitering around. And cutting through crowds when one manages to enter the (…)

• Why Indians may be looking for a Rahul Gandhi

  14 October 2017, by Badri Raina

  For a momentous three years or more, the Republic has been in a swoon of sophistry, a bubble of bombast. Not without effect, since Indians across classes and castes actually came to be taken in by a new style of leadership that made of words, gestures, slogans, and fake assertions an irresistible mix of mesmeric iteration. A leadership that came to draw the same sort of unthinking allegiance from citizens that in India is reserved for godmen and dispensers of magical potion.
  In contrast to (…)

• Insanity Enthroned

  14 October 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  After forty years of the foundation of our independent republic, the Frankenstein has appeared again—the monster that is out to destroy democracy and plunge this nation into civil war that shall rend asunder thousands of towns and villages of this great country.
  The term, communalism, does not convey the gravity of the crisis that confronts us today—let it be bluntly stated that what we face today is the demon of Hindu-Muslim hatred. Over a large part of this land, (…)

• BJP’s image dims with economic disruption; Rahul’s image glows with US tour. This is Sonia’s chance to score big

  14 October 2017, by T J S George

  impressions
  The Congress party published full-page advertisements in New York to announce a Rahul Gandhi meeting there. It made history by including, alongside the pictures of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, those of Lal Bahadur Shastri and P.V. Narasimha Rao. Shastri was never recognised during the Sonia years while Narasimha Rao was actively ostracised. To give the non-person that was Rao all these years a place now in the galaxy suggests something of an internal (…)

• The BJP should Draw a Lesson or Two from Nehru’s Far-Sighted Assessment of China

  14 October 2017

  by Vappala Balachandran
  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha on August 2, 2017 that “dialogue is the only way out of the Doklam standoff” with China. She ruled out war as an option and added that “China has contributed to our economic strength”. She also advised patience and restraint “and also restraint in statements”.
  Swaraj needs to be complimented for making a mature policy statement on the floor of the Upper House. This was indeed necessary in the background (…)

• Anthony J. Parel’s Contribution towards Understanding Mahatma Gandhi

  14 October 2017

  by A. Raghu Kumar
  Mahatma Gandhi introduced non-violence as a method of political struggle in India’s anti-colonial struggle. This method was adopted as a considered choice in many later struggles in many parts of the world. Post-Gandhi, the method of evaluation of a political struggle has to undergo a necessary test on this new touchstone. Even the chances of violent struggles, except for a few internal coups, have become almost bleak. Another difficulty in understanding Gandhi has always (…)

• The GST Syndrome

  14 October 2017

  by Atanu Sengupta and Sanjoy De
  1. Introduction
  The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is nothing new. It has been in the air since the 2000s or even earlier. The singularity of the present situation is the ruthlessness and speed at which it has been implemented, reflecting an aura of supposed efficiency and alacrity. The implementation was done without addressing and perhaps in spite of a lot of controversies accompanying its execution.
  As always, a plethora of views have emerged in this (…)