Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Youth Are Demanding India’s Constitutional Promise | Vaisakh Baiju

  29 July

  The youth-led protests of the Cockroach Janta Party, or CJP, are not simply expressions of anger over examination irregularities. They represent a demand that the Government of India fulfil one of its most important constitutional responsibilities: providing accessible, equal, reliable and high-quality education.
  The movement has brought together students, unemployed graduates and families affected by paper leaks, examination failures, delayed recruitment and declining confidence in (…)

• When Accountability and Morality Go Unheard | Preeti Chauhan

  29 July

  Sonam Wangchuk- a renowned innovator, reformist educator, environmental conservationist and also the Magsaysay Award winner- has been sitting on a hunger strike demanding the resignation of union education minister, Dhramendra Pradhan, a demand that in the first place shouldn’t have required any effort at all. It should have been the outcome once the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test(NEET) question paper was leaked again this year. Lakhs of students felt cheated, were out on the roads (…)

• Jantar Mantar Protest: Three Points for now | Prem Singh

  29 July, by Prem Singh

  Yesterday, a friend asked me what my comment was on the ongoing protest at Jantar Mantar. When I remained silent, he said he had been waiting for my comment for several days. I gave my friend my rehearsed answer – "I have long since given up the task of saving the country." My friend said he had heard this many times, so please elaborate. I replied that since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, I have stopped participating in political activities, making political statements, attending or (…)

• Jantar Mantar: A New Generation’s Fight For Education and Democracy | Arun Mitra

  29 July, by Arun Mitra

  July 23, 2026
  There Must Be National Conversation On Academic Issues And Rights
  Forty-six years ago, I participated in the "Job or Jail" campaign organized by the All India Students’ Federation (AISF). Those memories returned with remarkable clarity on Sunday, July 19, when I spent nearly four hours with students at the AISF stall at Jantar Mantar, where four students were on a hunger strike.
  The heat was relentless, and the crowd was so dense that breathing itself became difficult. (…)

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  Open Letter from the Constitutional Conduct Group on police brutality in Delhi on 20 July 2026

  29 July

  24 July 2026 To The Prime Minister of India The Union Home Minister The Lt. Governor of NCT of Delhi The Commissioner of Police, Delhi
  Subject: Condemnation of Brutal Police Action Against Peaceful Student Protesters in Delhi on 20 July 2026 and Urgent Call for Accountability and Dialogue
  We, the members of the Constitutional Conduct Group, a collective of former civil servants belonging to the All India Services and the Central Services with no political affiliation and committed to the (…)

• What Makes This Indian Student and Youth Movement Different?
 Legacies and Lessons in Uncompromising Idealism | Bhabani Shankar Nayak

  29 July

  Students and youth are often dismissed by geriatric people as apolitical, depoliticised, lazy, immoral, unconcerned, and materialistic—too busy with their own lives, glued to digital platforms and social media. Acting on such perceptions, the ruling classes have taken India’s young for granted. Thus, education—from school to higher education—remains low on the priority list, suffering from minimal investment and a glaring lack of political commitment to expanding science-based, secular (…)

• Scientists Exodus, A Loss For ISRO, Gain of Private Sector | Soma Marla

  29 July, by Soma S. Marla

  During mid June, two incidents in Indian Space came to limelight, 120 top level scientists quit the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), while a private firm Skyroot, has successfully placed Vikram- 1 carrying small-payload satellites in orbit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately congratulated Skyroot, saying the effort breaks the monopoly of the public sector and promotes the nation’s self-reliance. Resignation or voluntary retirement requests from Group ’A’ level scientific (…)

• Private Versus Public: Is Sovereign Power Of Democracy Controversial? | Sunita Samal

  29 July, by Sunita Samal

  One might say, for example, the major corporations represent national interest ‘what is good for General Motors, is good for America’. Indeed, the corporate responsibility that is the lack of accountability or representation, is common refrain in many protests. The concept of the public goods and services were thus developed in the light of a legal theory that considered the public as patrimony of the state and the principle of general interest as an attribute of sovereign.
  Whereas the (…)

• The New Battle for the Strait of Hormuz | Aftab Alam

  29 July

  Barely a month after reopening the Strait of Hormuz under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on June 17 to end the war, Iran has declared the waterway closed again “until further notice”—signalling the collapse of a deal many had regarded from the outset as inherently fragile. The resumption of hostility is a stark reminder of an enduring truth: it is far easier to start a war than to end one. Interestingly, the renewed confrontation is no longer centred on Iran’s nuclear programme (…)

• Exclusionary Mission of SIR | Amal Mandal

  29 July

  . Dearth of documents and obscurity as to the domicile and citizenship status of huge number of people generated confusion and consternation during the preparation of India’s first electoral roll. Ornit Shani in her How India Became Democratic (2017) highlighted one representation that urged the central authority to fix “vision first and revision afterwards". Obviously, the vision dictates the mission, which then influences the outcome. The vision of the Election Commission of India (EC) had (…)