Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Four Years After NEP 2020: What AISHE 2023–24 Reveals About India’s Higher Education | Sunit Singh

  30 July

  The Government launched the National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020. The policy promised a lot of things: no more rigid single-subject degrees, the start of 4-year undergraduate courses, multiple options to exit and enter college without losing credits, and a massive jump in the number of students getting higher education. But promises on paper are one thing, and ground reality is completely different. The Ministry of Education recently released the All India Survey on Higher Education (…)

• Reading Brutal Assertion of State Power in New Delhi | Arup Kumar Sen

  29 July, by Arup Kumar Sen

  On July 20, 2026, New Delhi witnessed brutal assertion of state power against the young protesters. The Hindu reported (July 21, 2026): “Several people were injured…when the police cracked down on a Parliament march called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) seeking the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan… At least 38 of the injured were taken to the Lady Hardinge Medical College and around 65 to the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, with fractures, swellings, and head (…)

• How sincere is Modi in putting education back on rails? | Faraz Ahmad

  29 July, by Faraz Ahmad

  The first non-Congress governments were formed in many states after the fourth general elections in 1967 and in Delhi Jana Sangh was elected to the Delhi Metropolitan Council, an advisory body with considerable powers to run the Delhi Administration. Late Vijay Kumar Malhotra, then a young Jana Sangh leader from West Delhi became the chief executive councillor and in his capacity as Leader of the House, he appointed L.K. Advani as the Chairman of the Council, the first non-elected chairman (…)

• The Unbroken Thread: How Today’s Youth Movement Builds on Shaheen Bagh and the Farmers’ Protests | K. Sahadevan

  29 July, by K. Sahadevan

  We are witnessing a youth movement that began in the capital and is gaining strength day by day, spreading to different parts of the country while inspiring hope and aspiration among all those who believe in democracy. Sparked by examination irregularities, it continues to draw more students and young people, particularly from the middle class, along with increasing support from India’s liberal intelligentsia.
  There is no doubt that this is a youth-led movement of a kind rarely seen in (…)

• The Waning Sting of Sangh Parivar’s Smears | K. Sahadevan

  29 July, by K. Sahadevan

  For nearly a decade, the RSS and other Sangh Parivar organisations have systematically deployed a campaign of smear and slander against individuals and groups who dare to protest the Modi government’s policies perceived as anti-people.
  Through a pliant section of the media, they have sought to humiliate critics by branding them with convenient labels: “anti-national,” “Tukde Tukde Gang,” “Urban Naxal,” “Khan Market Gang,” “Andolanjeevi,” “libtard,” and “sickular.” Even journalists who (…)

• 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 (…)