Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Student Politics

  12 March 2017, by Kuldip Nayar

  There was politics even during the period when I was in college before partition. But it was not on communal lines as it is today. Then the enemy was the British and all were in the struggle to oust them. It was in the 1940s when Qaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah came to the Law College at Lahore and exhorted all of us to make a joint effort to drive out the British.
  Subsequently, things came to such a pass that even water was divided into Hindu pitchers and Muslim pitchers. We, the (…)

• ‘Embedded’ Journalists and Banking Scams

  12 March 2017

  MEDIA
  by Amitava R. Sinha Roy
  Watchdog journalism informs the public about corruption, nepotism, cronyism and institutional chicanery. As the fourth pillar of democracy the media, along with the judiciary, executive and the legislature, fights for the public good. Tough questions and investigative reporting must be an essential element of journalistic work and a reporter must probe and question, dig deep and demand more. To avoid shallow reporting, journalists must push for more evidence (…)

• Secularism on Trial

  12 March 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  We as a nation are proud of the fact that we are a secular democracy. The test of our secularism does not consist in our protestations, however loud these may be, but in the manner we conduct ourselves towards the minorities who live and toil in this far-flung Republic of ours. Not only have we as a nation to ensure security to the minorities but should be able to instil into them a sense of security through our conduct. It is this challenge the nation faces today. (…)

• Tribute to Professor Randhir Singh and his Politics

  12 March 2017

  by Kadayam Subramanian
  Professor Randhir Singh, who passed away on January 31, 2016, was a truly eminent Professor of Political Theory in the University of Delhi. The first anniversary of his passing away was fittingly observed with the First Randhir Singh Memorial Lecture delivered on January 31, 2017 by the distinguished scholar/journalist, Bernard D’Mello.
  The occasion also witnessed the release of the volume Selected Writings of Randhir Singh with an introduction by Professor (…)

• One who Won Over even Those Disagreeing with Him

  12 March 2017

  TRIBUTE
  by Mahtab Alam
  In Delhi, the Panj Pira Qabristan adjacent to Delhi’s Nizamuddin Basti, 82-year-old Syed Shahabuddin was laid to rest on Saturday (March 4, 2017) afternoon.
  Vice-President Hamid Ansari, former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung, former Foreign Secretaries Muchkund Dubey and Salman Haider, senior journalist and editor of Mainstream weekly Sumit Chakravartty and noted social activist Swami Agnivesh were some of the prominent people who were present there. He (…)

• Bigotry Must be Condemned—in India or America

  12 March 2017, by M K Bhadrakumar

  There have been three recent incidents of attacks on Indians in the United States and it remains to be seen whether they are the manifestation of a “new normal”. A combustible mix is forming in America’s political economy.
  The racial bigotry in that country is legion. Even an “African-American” President couldn’t make difference to the entrenched racial prejudice amongst white people against fellow country-men with dark skin.
  But what makes the current situation parti-cularly dangerous (…)

• Face of BJP’s Diabolical Project

  5 March 2017, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  While the BJP stalwarts, including PM Narendra Modi, continue their communally polarising campaign in the last phases of the UP Assembly elections, the RSS’ student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), has resorted to threats and intimidation against its adversaries among the students. Lately a 20-year-old student of English literature in Lady Shri Ram College has had to face the ABVP’s ire. She had changed her Facebook profile picture to her holding a placard (…)

• PM Modi’s Muslim Bashing in UP Elections

  5 March 2017, by Shamsul Islam

  As the multi-phased UP Assembly elections progress, PM Modi as the only mascot of the BJP’s campaign is becoming more belligerent in his communally polarising rhetoric. Speaking at an election rally on (February 20, 2017) at Fatehpur, the PM, while raising the issue of appeasement of the Muslim minority in the State by the current Samajwadi Party Government, went to the extent of declaring: “Ramzan me bijli ati hai to Diwali me bhi ani chahiye; Bhedbhav nahi hona chahiye (If there is (…)

• In the Name of Ram

  5 March 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  To build a temple to mark the brithplace of Ram, a mosque was destroyed by deceit.
  Those who swiftly and competently did the demolition job on Sunday (December 6, 1992), did so before the very eyes of those leaders who had been assuring Parliament and the public that the disputed structure would not be harmed until the dispute itself was settled by negotiations or through the due process of law. The UP Government, which was manned by the party which supported the (…)

• Why the SP-Congress Alliance is Attractive for the Non-Committed Voter

  5 March 2017, by Bharat Dogra

  With the newly-formed SP-Congress alliance making waves in the Uttar Pradesh elections, it is natural for most members and supporters of these two political parties to feel upbeat about the prospects of this alliance. This article, however, is not about them or their taken-for-granted support. Instead this article is about the largely non-committed voters and why they too may be increasingly attracted towards this new alliance.
  Let me start by analysing my own thinking, although I am not a (…)