Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Respect Rights of Political Prisoners

  26 July 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  Serious concern was expressed recently by the judiciary at the serious health problems faced by political prisoners like Kobad Ghandy and G.N. Saibaba. First court orders were given for ending numerous harassments caused to Kobad Ghandy (who suffers from several ailments) in Tihar Jail which were leading to steady deterioration in his health. Later on June 10, the Bombay High Court issued notice to the State Government of Maharashtra and sought a report on the deteriorating (…)

• Destablised Middle-East

  26 July 2015, by Harish Chandola

  The Islamic State (IS) has created a support base in Iraq and Syria. When its fighters get bombed and ousted from one place, they appear in another, as happened in April when their fighters were driven out of the city of Tikrit in Iraq, to appear in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp on the putskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus, and again when they were ousted from the city of Ramadi in Iraq, on May 15, they appeared five days later to seize Palmyra, in Syria.
  The total strength of (…)

• Growing Threat of Islamic State for Central Asia

  26 July 2015

  by R.G. Gidadhubli
  Cooperation and coordination to deal with threats of terrorism and extremism, especially from the rapid rise of the Islamic State (IS), have been discussed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the leaders of the five Central Asian countries during his visit to those states in the second week of July 2015. Moreover, at the SCO Summit, held in the Russian city of Ufa, the issue of growing threats of terrorism was also discussed.
  In view of this it is necessary to (…)

• The Continuing Greek Tragedy: Scripting a Survival Strategy?

  26 July 2015

  by V. Krishna Moorthy
  Introduction: The History
  Ancient Greece, the birthplace of Western civilisation since about 2500 years ago, is known for its achievements in Philosophy, Sciences, Arts and Government. The Geek civilisation developed chiefly in City-States. They were fiercely independent and in constant rivalry with one another. The citizens were highly patriotic, took part in public affairs and established the world’s first democratic govern-ments. A common language, religion and (…)

• Politicians can no longer ignore Vyapam’s point: That India is more than Congress and BJP

  26 July 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  One of the misfortunes of our country is that everything is reduced to Congress vs BJP. This is because everything is political in nature, whether it is getting admission to a kindergarten, encashing a pension entitlement, getting into a sports team or getting out of a traffic accident you have caused. All activities revolve round recommendations, political interference, wire-pulling and bribes. If the Congress does not blame the BJP for this year’s erratic monsoon, it will be (…)

• Modi and the Naive Western Media

  26 July 2015, by Dipak Malik

  The enterprise of the post-Independence nation-building in India was given a short shrift right after 1991 with Manmohan Singh changing the essentials of the Nehruvian model of nation-building. The only residual element of the post-independence agenda, which though taken by the Congress party, was secularism in 2004 after a full-blown regime of soft Hindutva under Rajiv Gandhi, who initiated also the early phase of the globalisation-liberalisation move. From 1985 to 2014, about 30 years of (…)

• Prospect from Simla

  26 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  This month marked the 43rd anniversary of the Simla Summit. On this occasion, we reproduce the following piece by N.C. in ‘Editor’s Notebook’ (Mainstream, July 8, 1972). This needs to be read in the context of the just concluded Narendra Modi-Nawaz Sharif talks in Ufa, Russia. —Editor
  If cautious optimism marked the approach of New Delhi to the Indo-Pak Summit before it took place, it persists, more or less in the same measure, even after the Simla Agreement. At (…)

• Is It “Now Or Never” For India’s Left Forces?: Innovate To Survive

  26 July 2015, by S G Vombatkere

  The Left is usually associated with revolution. This is not surprising since “Left” has come to mean the socialist and communist political parties and organisations which adopt ideology according to Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao, etc., albeit interpreted variously. In the Indian context, “Left” has usually meant the Communist Parties which, starting with the Communist Party of India (CPI), have fragmented into a large number (75, by one estimate [Note 1]) of mutually antagonistic (…)

• Bihar Elections 2015

  26 July 2015, by Badri Raina

  Most political observers and commentators seem to agree that the coming elections to the Assembly in Bihar will not only be important but perhaps definitive in suggestging the shape of mainstream political life in India till the next General Election in 2019.
  To put the matter baldly, if the Bharatiya Janata Party were to score a victory in Bihar, it might be on course to take the all-important Uttar Pradesh as well. This for two reasons: one, the party would have proved that the (…)

• Making The Right Moves

  26 July 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  Can we trust them? This is the burden of comments both in India and Pakistan after the meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif. The reaction is no reflection on the effort the two are making to break the ice. However, it shows that even after 70 years of partition, the enmity between the two countries remains as entrenched as before. Any step taken to lessen the distance between the two is viewed with doubt and suspicion.
  Not many people in the two countries dare to (…)