Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Importance of Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

  31 July 2015, by Muchkund Dubey

  The following are excerpts from an article written by the author and published in the editorial page of The Hindu on July 5, 2002 after the election of Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to the post of the President. These excerpts are being reproduced, with due acknowledgement, as their validity remains undiminished to this day.
  The incoming President, Dr Kalam is a great achiever. His achievements have been duly recognised by the award of Bharat Ratna. Dr Kalam will be the role model for millions of (…)

• Greatness

  31 July 2015, by Badri Raina

  Always wondered whether little People may be called "great", Those who live and die Without ever coming into the public Eye—noble to the core in Every sort of menial chore. Or must greatness of necessity Involve the conquest of land And leverage, through sword Or subterfuge, or cunning Deployment of the beguiling Word, leaving behind the claims Of the yellowed page. Can those Who simply wish well and remain Mindful of such whose stories Few sribes or or eulogists will tell Ever be (…)

• Iftar parties: How Politics takes over Religion, how Some Ministers turn to Hypocrisy

  31 July 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  In no democracy is religion as politicised as in India. And no other religious event in India is as politicised as Iftar. The breaking-fast ritual signalling the end of the daily Ramadan fast is traditionally an occasion for piety and family gathering. While that tradition remains strong among the faithful, commercial interests and politicians seem to work against the spirit of the occasion. Some promote the feasting rather than the fasting. Others host Iftar parties to show (…)

• Stop Ceasefire Violations, restore peace in Border Areas - Statement by PIPFPD’s Pak, India Chapters

  31 July 2015

  The following is a Joint Statement issued by the Pakistan and India Chapters of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Pece and Democracy on July 23, 2015
  The PIPFPD urges India and Pakistan to immediately stop ceasefire violations and restore peace in the border areas.
  We, members of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy, strongly condemn the ceasefire violations and firings taking place on the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) or Working (…)

• PADS Condemns CBI Raids at Premises of Teesta and Javed

  31 July 2015

  The People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) strongly condemns the CBI raids on July, 14 2015 at the premises of social activist Teesta Setalvad, her husband, Javed Anand, Gulam Mohammed Peshimam and office of Sabrang Communications and Publishing in Mumbai. These raids are undertaken for purely vindictive reasons given the assurances of complete cooperation and submission of thousands of pages of documents to the CBI. It is by now an open secret that activists working for (…)

• Bangalore Citizens Decry State-sponsored Intimidation of Human Rights Activists

  31 July 2015

  The following is a statement by the Bangalore citizens against state-sponsored intimidation of human rights activists and civil society organisations.
  The CBI raid on the residence and office of activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband, Javed Anand, on July 13 and 14, 2015 is a shocking development. Socially conscious citizens perceive this as a political vendetta to insult, humiliate and intimidate the couple fighting for the rights of the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Needless to (…)

• The Desert Winds

  31 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Against the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi’s forthcoming visit to Israel, the following piece by N.C. that appeared under the ‘New Delhi Skyline’ in Mainstream more than 48 years ago is being reproduced.
  The military convulsion that rocked West Asia last week has left its indelible mark in New Delhi. There is no section of opinion in the Capital which has been left unaffected by this almost overpowering experience.
  A significant feature of New Delhi, reactions is (…)

• Story of two Travel Documents

  31 July 2015

  India’s major political parties, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have rendered Parliament to a place of tamasha. They pick up a small matter, hardly worth a mention, and stretch it to a point of debate in Parliament. True, they attract the nation’s attention but are making people more and more cynical about the highest elected bodies.
  Take the cases relating to the issuing of travel documents to Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a hard-line separatist leader from Jammu and Kashmir, and (…)

• Today’s Political Killers ...of Human Forms, of Communities, of Institutions..

  31 July 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Today’s political rulers are killing. Spreading their tactics beyond Gujarat... the ongoing killings in Madhya Pradesh are nothing short of silencing witnesses and whistle-blowers. Anyone who could speak out and pinpoint at the political figures involved in the Vyapam scam, is not allowed to survive. And these murders carry a definite pattern, yet mute we sit.
  Another politically mastered trend which has been emerging right from the Muzaffarnagar riots is this—political goons (…)

• TV Entertainment Industry in India: Characteristics and Trends

  31 July 2015

  by Naresh Nadeem
  The paper presented here, an impressionistic account, deals with the TV entertainment media in India, its course of development, its characteristics, and its implications and lessons for Pakistan. The paper seeks to situate the issue in the context of the development of the TV entertainment media that has registered a phenomenal growth in the last three decades and more so after the entry of private players in the 1990s. Three years ago, the present writer had presented (…)