2017

EDITORIAL
With this issue Mainstream completes fifty five years of its long, arduous, modest yet purposeful existence.
Affirming that what we face today in this country “has no parallel”, it was written in these columns a year ago on December 20, 2016:
From the time the present dispensation at the Centre seized the levers of power in mid-2014, the attack on the minorities—in order to distort the face of India and transform the country into a Hindu Pakistan by subverting the (…)

COMMENTARY
However Mr Modi might flash the victory sign, in the heart of his heart he knows that he lost in Gujarat.
The steady, strenuous, and well-thought-out campaign mounted by Rahul Gandhi was a bold and unrelenting buzz in the elephant’s ear; and the buzz drew echo from far and wide in the Gujarat hinterland. Rahul Gandhi’s elegant refusal to be provoked by the mud thrown at him, and the decency of his articulations and advisements has clearly raised him to the stature of a leader (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Against the backdrop of the recent anti-Pakistan tirade resorted to by the PM in the context of the Gujarat Assembly elections in order to corner the Opposition and gain electoral advantage, we are reproducing here two pieces by N.C., written and published twentytwo years ago in 1995, highlighting the importance of people-to-people interaction between Indians and Pakistanis for removing misunderstandings between the two neighbours and bringing about India-Pakistan (…)

by M.K. Bhadrakumar
The worst thing that can happen to a political party is when it begins to look trivial. The miserable decline of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is a recent example. By and large India’s political parties have avoided such a catastrophe. And that explains the angst today in the minds of the supporters and fellow- travellers of the Left movement in India.
The fact of the matter is that the Communist Party of India-Marxist is the leading formation in the Left (…)

I think the Supreme Court’s order to appoint an amicus curiae in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassi-nation is important. More about how it happened and why—are the two points which need to be pursued. The plea filed by Dr Pankaj Phadnis, a trustee of Abhinav Bharat, however, suggests a foreign hand. But that remains to be proven.
I recall that the assassination was the biggest security lapse. I was working at the news desk of Anjam, an Urdu daily, when the PTI teleprinter rang the bell which a news (…)

by Shamsul Islam
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of India’s independence, the Government of UP led by a senior leader of the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, Mahant Adityanath Yogi, came out with a stunning order for madrasaas (Islamic semi-naries). They were ordered to compulsorily observe the Independence Day, August 15, and the same had to be video-graphed to be sent to the administration as proof. The order was issued by the Registrar of UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad, Rahul Gupta. The (…)

by Harish Chandola
With the killing of a few Palestinians on the West Bank on December 8, the Middle East has again been thrown in a turmoil after the announcement by the US President, Donald Trump, on December 6, declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Demonstrations broke out almost all over the Moslem world, from Turkey to Malaysia and Indonesia, against that announcement and clashes broke out in Israeli-occupied West Bank of the Jordan River between Palestinians and Israelis (…)

by Arup Kumar Sen
Very recently, a communication from the Prime Minister’s Office reminded us that “demonetisation proves to be a game-changer”. While highlighting the “multi-dimensional benefits of demonetisation”, the aforementioned communication disclosed that “stone-pelting incidents in Kashmir came down by 75 per cent from the previous year”. In his public speech, addressed to the Indian community in Manila, Philippines (November13, 2017), the Prime Minister announced: “India is the (…)

God is an idea abstracted from The best of human qualities; And the Market likewise exemplifies The worst of our propensities. Between the two is Religion Which brokers our best and worst By keeping both in good humour From baptism to the hearse. War is the enterprise That proves our loyalty To Nation, Market, Religion— Enriching Trinity.
Badri Raina

by Suranjita Ray
This Kharif season, Brown Plant Hoppers (BPH) have been particularly pestilent towards destroying paddy crops in most of the districts of Western Odisha. Twentyfour of Odisha’s thirty districts are affected. Experiences of drought and unseasonal rain followed the pest attack, adding to the debt burden and distress of the farmers that is beyond comprehension.
Bargarh district, known as the rice bowl of Odisha, has experienced the worst crisis. Huge acres of crops have (…)