Mainstream Weekly

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• Gauri Lankesh, Plight of Rohingyas

  23 September 2017, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Gauri Lankesh shot dead in front of her Bengaluru home. Yes, murdered—this firebrand activist-writer-editor. Upright and bold and vocal she was; taking on the Right-wing political mafia in one of those ongoing and determined ways.... As I’m filing this column just hours after the news of her murder, so unable to detail the possible ‘whys’ but quite obviously the various goon brigades stand in the suspect category. In fact, her murder has shocked each one of us. There’s anger (…)

• Myanmar : Persecution of Rohingya Muslims

  23 September 2017

  by Ram Puniyani
  Massive protests are being witnessed in many countries, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India among others, against the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (September 2017). This time around violence seems to have been triggered due to the attack by militants (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) on police and military posts. As per UN estimates, nearly 1000 Rohingyas have been killed and over 2.5 lakh Muslims have fled to Bangladesh to escape the violence. The UN has said that the (…)

• ASEAN and the Rohingya Refugee Crisis: Time to Act

  23 September 2017, by Bharti Chhibber

  South-East Asia cannot ignore the Rohingya crisis any longer as it is not only about Myanmar but it has repercussions for the whole regional scenario. Although the issue had been brewing up for quite a few years, the international community realised it in 2015 when thousands of Rohingya refugees were marooned at sea for many days as they were not allowed in neighbouring Thailand’s and Malaysia’s coasts. Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia’s initial refusal to take refugees abandoned in water (…)

• Murder of Gauri Lankesh: An Attack on Media or Ideology?

  23 September 2017, by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

  The Press Club of India did not have space to even stand yesterday (September 6, 2017). The outpouring of grief and anger in the street as well as on the social media on the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh compelled many veterans to join hands and speak up against the culture of intimidation and violence against those who differ with the current dispensation and their politics of Hindu nationalism. There were political leaders of the Left, though Rahul Gandhi and leaders of other (…)

• The Politics of Sangh Parivar has Seeds of Violence in it

  23 September 2017, by Sandeep Pandey

  The Prime Minister’s birthday was celebrated by dedicating the Sardar Sarovar dam to the nation. There are 244 villages and one town that are going to be submerged by this dam. The cost of the dam is nearly Rs One lakh crore. Of this an estimated Rs 1500 crore was embezzled in the process of rehabilitation. An enquiry commission headed by Justice S.S. Jha was established to look into the corruption in rehabilitation. The government is not ready to make the report public.
  Because of closure (…)

• The Eloquence of Silence

  23 September 2017

  by Samantak Das
  About a month ago, a US-based cousin was driving back home from work when the car in front of her braked in such a way that she was forced to pull over. The driver of the car, a large White woman, got off her vehicle, came up to my cousin, said, “You f***ing black w****, go back to your own country!” then turned on her heel and walked away. In her 20 years in the US, my cousin, a university professor who works with poor, marginalised and dispossessed groups of people (…)

• Assassins of old were honest, modern ones are cowardly. But the cowards are destroying the Indian dream

  23 September 2017, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  In the days of Nathuram Godse, things were straightforward and honest. When he shot Mahatma Gandhi there was no attempt to hide his identity. The courage of his conviction emboldened him to say bluntly, “I did fire the shots... I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me.” His final statement before the court was an eloquent defence of the Hindutva view of history.
  Courage of conviction similar to Godse’s was seen again in 1984 when Beant Singh and Satwant Singh shot Indira (…)

• This Pain Should Become Anger!

  23 September 2017

  by Varavara Rao
  Shocking news! How much shock it would be for friends of Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru—a friend enquired whether I knew the news tweeted by Rajdeep Sardesai. Immediately I tried to contact Babayya, another friend from Bengaluru. But couldn’t get him on phone, perhaps sharing his agony with other friends. He returned the call after two hours. But what happened is not quite unexpected. Since the destruction of the Babri Masjid, she has been fighting against the saffron brigade. (…)

• India and the Evolving New World Order — II

  23 September 2017, by Kobad Ghandy

  This article has been sent to us for publication by the eminent Marxist-Maoist thinker, Kobad Ghandy, from the Visakhapatnam Central Jail where he is currently lodged. He started writing it in Hyderabad Jail and completed it at the Visakhapatnam Central Jail. We have already carried its first part (Evolving New World Order) in Mainstream (September 16, 2017); the following is the second and concluding part.
  Part II : India’s Growing US Dependency and the Spirit of 1942
  India and the (…)

• The Changing Alignments

  23 September 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The prospect of a new configuration inside the Janata Pary has been advanced by the dramatic developments in UP. It is not just a change of incumbent for the post of Chief Minister that took place with Banarsi Das taking over from Ram Naresh Yadav, but an entirely new scenario for Indian politics with possibi-lities which only the blind can ignore.
  Soon after the Janata came to power in 1977, the key development within it was the axis formed between the Jana Sangh (…)