Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Growing Lawlessness

  2 April 2017

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  After the elections in five States, the country has seen a disturbing trend of growing lawlessness. During the election campaign the charge against the Akhilesh Yadav Government was that under it Uttar Pradesh had become a lawless State—a goonda raj had been established. Those who brought this charge won the elections and are now in power. Under the new raj, slaughter houses, whether ‘legal’ or ‘illegal, have been targeted and forcibly closed down. A BJP MLA has publicly (…)

• Selection of Yogi Adityanath: People’s Verdict Sabotaged

  2 April 2017

  The following statement has been issued by Debabrata Biswas, the General Secretary of the All India Forward Bloc, on March 20, 2017.
  By appointing Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has sabotaged the people’s verdict and openly challenged the democratic practice of the nation. It could have been democratic if the BJP leadership dared to announce his name as the chief ministerial candidate before the elections.
  The Gorakhpur MP, Yogi Adityanath, was known for (…)

• Why and How BJP Won So Massively in Uttar Pradesh

  2 April 2017, by Bharat Dogra

  The recent elections in Uttar Pradesh were very important and the results have surprised most people. It is very important to try to understand the election results in an unbiased way with a view to learning from them.
  For the sake of better understanding the causes of the massive win of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, these can be divided into three categories—(1) those relating to mistakes and weaknesses of other leading parties; (2) those relating to the very successful planning and (…)

• Communalism Trumps Social Justice For Now

  2 April 2017, by Sandeep Pandey

  After the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations by the Vishwanath Pratap Singh Government at the Centre in 1990, it has been only an Other Backward Classes or a Scheduled Caste leader in Uttar Pradesh at the helm, except for a five-year period from 1997 to 2002 when the only Bharatiya Janata Party Government formed after the Babri Masjid demolition had two upper-caste Chief Ministers, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh. [However, before Gupta and Singh there was a Backward (…)

• The Real Message from Uttar Pradesh

  2 April 2017

  by S.P. Shukla
  A lot has been written about the results of the UP Assembly elections which seem to have confounded the critics as well as the participants in equal measure.
  Much of what has been said is more of a description than analysis. Take, for example, the belated discovery, by participants as well as commentators, of a ‘Modi Wave’ or a ‘Modi March’.
  Or for that matter, the tribute paid by a veteran Opposition leader that PM Modi is “the most dominant figure in politics today”. (…)

• Conversion of a Hindu Priest in India

  2 April 2017

  by L.K. Sharma
  India is a happening place. It has just witnessed the rare event of a Hindu priest becoming the Chief Minister of its politically most influential State of Uttar Pradesh (UP). Ajay Singh Bisht became Yogi Adityanath and after the death of his “spiritual father” became the head of his religious establishment.
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned hard to win the State Assembly elections for his party and then ensured that the State is ruled by a monk in saffron clothes (…)

• Towards Bosnia?

  2 April 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Bombay is burning. Sopore is burning.
  Bombay marks the worst of Hindu-Muslim communal violence since the bloody days of the partition that came with the independence of India. The civil aministration having failed, the Army has been called in to put down killing and looting in the country’s commercial capital famous for its cosmopolitan culture.
  And Sopore? The Border Security Force under constant attack from the militants fighting for Kashmir’s secession, (…)

• Back to Square One

  2 April 2017, by Kuldip Nayar

  We are back to square one. The Supreme Court has advised the two parties, those who want the Babri Masjid to be reconstructed and those who claim that the site is that of Lord Rama’s. In its judgment, the Court has advised the different parties to sit together and sort out the problems through negotiations.
  One surprising part of the advice is that the Chief Justice of India is willing to mediate for an out-of-court settlement. He has said: “Give a bit and take a bit. Make an effort to (…)

• Doomsday for UP!

  2 April 2017, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Doomsday for the State of Uttar Pradesh with the appointment of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister. Well, that was my first spon-taneous reaction as soon as that news had trickled in. And this reaction is getting com-pounded as disasters are getting unfolded. Within the very first two days of his appoint-ment hundreds are sitting jobless as slaughter houses and meat-shops have been shut or sealed in several towns of Uttar Pradesh—Allahabad, Lakhimpur Kheri, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, (…)

• Fake News, Post-Truth, Ethics and Me

  2 April 2017, by Kobad Ghandy

  Leftist thinker Kobad Gandhy has sent this short piece for publication from Cherlapalli Central Jail, Cherlapalli, Medchal district, Hyderabad where he is currently lodged.
  In the West the people have known since long that the mainstream/corporate media is filled with fake news and have thus turned to the social media. Now this is out in the open, with even prestigious newspapers/channels planting fake stories against Trump and crudely backing Clinton. Not that there was much to choose (…)