2018

Dr Ajit Mozoomdar, 94, was born in Patna in 1924. He belonged to an illustrious Brahmo family. His education was in Patna and in Calcutta. He joined the IAS in 1946. After joining the service, he obtained a scholarship from the British Council and a D.Phil in Oxford. He returned to India and served in top positions, mainly in the Ministry of Finance. He retired as the Secretary of the Planning Commission, Government of India. After retirement, he was appointed the Executive Director of the (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The following lines were written by N.C. twentythree 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 twentythird 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 five years ago on July 27, 2013 also went virtually unnoticed. But we in Mainstream have decided to offer (…)

DOCUMENT
Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy’s Tenth National Convention
The Bhubaneswar Declaration
We, the delegates to the 10th National Convention of the PIPFPD, held at Bhubaneswar on February 10-11, 2018 under the overhang of the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Pakistan and India, renewed our commitment to the joint struggle for peace and democracy in the two countries.
The delegates met at a very critical juncture in the relationship between India (…)

PM Modi’s speeches in both the Houses of Indian Parliament on February 7, 2017, while defending the Motion of Thanks on President Ram Nath Kovind’s address, belied the hope which some political analysts carried that Modi after becoming the PM would mature and overcome the Hindutva traits of double-speak, rabble-rousing and resorting to lies which he learnt in the RSS shakhas. While replying he showed that he remains a Hindu nationalist which he claimed to be his identity while talking to (…)

The rise of Hindutva-related organisations in India, especially since the late 1980s, has witnessed frequent attacks by them on the pre-freedom Congress in relation to the partition of India in 1947. These attacks increased since 2013 in the run-up to the General Elections of 2014. Some Hindutva organisations have become less covert than before in their glorification of the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi. Simultaneously, other sections of the Hindutva forces have sought to disclaim (…)

by Ram Puniyani
Communal violence has been the bane of our society. There had been a perception that this violence is a spontaneous clash between two communities. Over a period of time, it is becoming clear that it is not a spontaneous phenomenon, nor is it a clash between two communities, it is a planned violence. Scholars, basing themselves on analysis of the inquiry commission reports and the pattern of riots, show that violence is generally a planned event to polarise the communities (…)

Pakistan has stepped up its proxy war in Kashmir. Terrorists belonging to different terror outfits backed by Pakistan are making almost daily attacks on Army and paramilitary camps and killing our jawans. Defence and Home Ministers are routinely warning Pakistan that ‘appropriate retaliatory measures’ will be taken, though nothing is visible on the ground. J & K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has called for talks with Pakistan because ‘war is not an alternative’. The hyper-nationalist (…)

The Fidayeen attack on the Brigade Headquarters in Jammu City is barely over when news of another daring attack comes, this time from the heart of Srinagar City in the thick of the Karan Nagar colony, a walking distance from the S.M.H.S Hospital from where an LeT terrorist escaped from police custody a week ago.
But, not to worry: the official discourse continues to be that the more we fail in Kashmir and vis-a-vis Pakistan, the more we are actually succeeding.
That oxymoron may of (…)

by Kumar Ketkar
Since everything that is personal has become political now and everything that is private has become public, it would not be out of place to bring upfront what is generally ignored or utterly underplayed by the media. Even the otherwise hyperactive social media, which goes wild about any real or fake news or rumour about the Nehru-Gandhi family, has been absolutely silent about our messianic Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wife Jashodaben.
Last week she met with an (…)

by Vijay Kumar
All the newspapers in their February 4, Sunday edition carried a news item in respect of the release of a book under the caption ‘Examination Barrier—25 Mantras for tackling the stress of Examination’ penned down by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. On the face of it, this event seems innocuous and perfectly routine. But on deeper scrutiny, the event gives rise to serious concern.
The educational attainment of Shri Modi is hardly known to anybody. Despite the dogged (…)