2015

What was unthinkable till the third week of November 20014 in Sri Lanka has, nevertheless, happened, and the “Monarch” Mahinda Rajapaksa has fallen.
Challenger Maithripala Sirisena, who declared his defection from the Rajapaksa Government and his candidature in the January 8 2015 presidential election as late as November 21 last, achieved the unthinkable and defeated the redoubtable Rajapaksa in a very convincing manner indeed, by a 3.7 percentage point margin.
Despite the fact that the (…)

This article by Marxist/Maoist thinker Kobad Ghandy (who is still lodged in Tihar Jail No. 2, Ward 5), written quite sometime ago, reached us only recently. However, it is being published as its contents have still not outlived their validity.
“It is perfectly possible to pervert the Constitution, without changing the form, by merely changing the form of the administration and to make it inconsistent and opposed to the spirit of the Constitution. Constitutional morality is not a natural (…)

Not many people know that Lohia was an ardent admirer of Nehru in his youth. In fact, Nehru was one of the two leaders he simply adored—the other being Mahatma Gandhi. So when disillusionment set in, his criticism of Nehru acquired a bitterness, an extremist edge. It was like the reaction of a jilted lover. His hero had let him down. Nehru for Lohia became the God that failed.
As Lohia saw it, the idealist in Nehru had been superseded by the practical politician as India drew close to its (…)

It’s official: India and the US will resume negotiations on a high-standard bilateral investment treaty (BIT). In a joint statement on January 25 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama, the leaders affirmed their “shared commitment to facilitating increased bilateral investment flows and fostering an open and predictable climate for investment.” Since 2008, the two countries have been engaged in sporadic discussions to arrive at such a treaty. In the coming days, (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The following lines were written by N.C. twenty years ago and published in this journal’s February 18, 1995 issue. It is being reproduced on the occasion of the distinguished revolutionary Kalpana Dutt’s twentieth death anniversary which fell on February 8 this year. It came and went with hardly anyone remembering her on that day. Kalpana’s birth centenary on July 27, 2013 also went virtually unnoticed. But we in Mainstream have decided to offer our homage to her (…)

On January 8, passed away in Berlin Sunil K. Dasgupta, 86. He is survived by his wife Barbara and two sons.
His wife, Barbara Dasgupta, sent the following life-sketch of Sunil Dasgupta for publication in Mainstream.
“Fondly known as ‘Ramuda’ or simply ‘Dada’, Sunil Kumar Dasgupta was born in 1928 in Beldhakan, now Jalakati, in Barisal in a family of ayurvedic doctors. His uncle was Nalini Gupta, the famous Chacha of ‘Chachar Kahini’, one of the founders of the Communist Party of India. (…)

DOCUMENT
The following appeal to the voters of Delhi was issued in the form of a press release from the Forum for Democracy and Communal Amity on February 5, 2015 just before the Delhi Assembly elections which took place on February 7. Even though the elections are over and the results have been announced, we are publishing the appeal, signed by eminent personalities (like Prof Muchkund Dubey, Justice Rajindar Sachar, Kuldip Nayar), as it brings out several concerns before our polity at (…)

by Moitree Bhattacharya
The politics of regional parties in India is passing through a critical phase in recent times. In this phase, the regional parties are not only losing political influence, they are also facing a threat of electoral decline. In the last few decades these regional parties gradually expanded both politically and electorally, emerged as important actors not only in the States but also in national politics. By improving electoral performance some of them even acquired (…)

The country has observed its sixtysixth Republic Day across our vast landmass today with the prospect of uncertainty looming large over the national scene.
Elements which were hitherto in the fringes of our polity, unabashedly espousing majoritarian communalism, have suddenly captured the centre-stage following the Narendra Modi-led BJP’s resounding victory at the hustings eight months ago and are engaged in making all kinds of divisive statements that have caused justifiable concern not (…)