2020

by Pallavi Borgohain
It is a matter of sheer disappointment and repugnance that there has been no substantive discussion on issues like the abysmal GDP, unemployment and covid management etc in the electronic media but then I realize almost at the same time that maybe these are not the kind of issues that interest the citizens of this country any longer. But are not citizens supposed to be conscious about their rights and by extension of their violation? So is this a sign of the Bharatiya (…)

by Arun Srivastava
The Modi government is not averse to Supreme Court laying down guidelines for the digital media but is completely opposed to apex court laying down “any further guidelines’ for rest of mainstream media on the plea that there already exists sufficient framework and judicial pronouncements with regard to electronic media and print media. This plea of the Modi government is really incomprehensible that "if the court decides to undertake the exercise, it should first be (…)

In recent months many socially committed lawyers committed to serving the poor and other people who stand for justice and human rights, in India as well as abroad, have been distressed at the imprisonment of a public-spirited lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj with a lifelong record of standing up for justice for the poor. Both as a socially committed lawyer and as a teacher of law and legal issues she emerged as an inspiration for young law students who wanted to help the poor and they have been very (…)

Review Article
by Chaman Lal*
Chris Moffat, India’s Revolutionary Inheritance: Politics and The Promise of Bhagat Singh, 2019, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, Pages 282 Online ISBN: 9781108655194 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108655194
Chris Moffat has been a British researcher doing research on Bhagat Singh since years and spent quite a lot of time in Delhi and Punjab on both sides of the Indo-Pak border. This book is result of his rigorously academic, scholarly (…)

by Sruthi Kalyani
“The third kingdom is the kingdom of consequences. This is the kingdom where the three almighty powers show their true face. This is the layer the vast majority of people are able to see, even if with some difficulty. At present, this kingdom possesses two main landscapes where it shows itself at its most visible and most cruel: the scandalous concentration of wealth / extreme social inequality; the destruction of life on the planet / imminent ecological catastrophe. With (…)

Noam Chomsky keynote speech ‘on Internationalism’ to Progressive International inaugural summit, 18 September 2020

Tabel of Contents - Mainstream, VOL LVIII No 41, New Delhi, September 26, 2020 Letter to the Readers - Mainstream, Sept 26 In memory of Mumbai’s Red Rose: Roza Deshpande’s death marks the end of an era of stalwarts who empowered the working class | Kumar Ketkar Document: AIKSCC Call For All India Bandh & Resistance Protests By Farmers On 25th September Document: Assault on Indian Parliament - bulldozing legislations violating procedures - Statement by the Communist Party of India (…)

The 2020 monsoon session of Parliament was short-lived; it functioned for just seven days and was adjourned sine die on September 23. The Modi Government gave a full display of its will to override the Opposition and steamroll legislation without scrutiny. Readers will recall that there was no ‘Question Hour’ in this session of Parliament. It is getting clearer with each passing day that the government wants no transparency. The manner in which the Multiple Farm Bills were passed (…)

by Kumar Ketkar
A full 91 years of political life.
Her father, the celebrated and renowned communist leader, Comrade Shripad Amrit Dange was arrested in Mumbai by the British Raj in the famous Meerut Conspiracy Case. The year was 1929. Roza was just a few months old. The charge against Comrade Dange was that he and his revolutionary comrades had conspired to overthrow British rule by organising an armed uprising.
Roza met him in jail, with her mother, Ushatai, also a militant fighter. (…)

All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC)
Press Release
18th September 2020
Delhi, 17th September, 2020: Working Group of AIKSCC has decided to forcefully go ahead with its opposition to the three Agriculture Ordinances brought by the Central Government on June 5 and the new bills based on these under consideration of the Parliament.
AIKSCC shall launch a massive resistance against these new Bills/Acts on September 25th with a call for an All India Bandh and (…)