Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Judicial Activism, Right or Wrong

  12 April 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  When politicians as a community are in a state of siege in the eyes of the public, it is extremely short-sighted on the part of any government to make any move that may appear to the public as a means to cover up or to close the channels of the politician’s exposure.
  While in the public mind, corruption among politicians has become a live issue since the Bofors bribery scandal, it was during Narasimha Rao’s Prime Ministership that the enormity of corruption in public (…)

• The Last Devadasi: Does her Death brings down Curtain on a Disgraceful Temple Custom?

  12 April 2015, by A K Biswas

  Devadasi, though described as a female slave of the gods, used with reference to women dedicated to the temple, was actually a temple prostitute. Many parts of India boasted of these women who were an integral part of Hindu shrines. And she pandered to the carnal desires of the priests, besides the rich and wealthy visitors, who undertook the journey to those places under the religious pretext. These women were a source of attraction which enhanced the reputation of many temples. The (…)

• Islamic State (IS) Declines

  12 April 2015, by Harish Chandola

  It may be too early to say that the days of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (IS) appear to be numbered. It has lost quite a lot of territory and revenue and has been completely driven out of the Kurdish region and much of Iraq. From 35,000 square kilometres of territory it used to hold at its peak, it has lost about 13,000 square kilometres in Iraq and some estimate that it is now left with just about a quarter of what it controlled. Over 1000 of its fighters and 17 top commanders were (…)

• Union Budget 2015-16: Injustice to Dalits and Adivasis

  12 April 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  In order to reduce and remove the many-sided disadvantages and problems faced by Dalits and adivasis, sub-plans for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been introduced to ensure adequate and justice-based availability of funds for these communities.
  Summarising the basic idea and rationale for this, the Planning Commission says: “the persistence of socio-economic backwardness of the SCs and STs in spite of the development efforts had warranted a special and focused strategy, (…)

• Judging the Judges: Debating Judicial Conduct

  12 April 2015

  by Kaleeswaram Raj
  The Supreme Court Bar Association had proposed a resolution demanding “fair treatment of lawyers” by judges. The notice issued recently by the Association, which consists of members from almost all the States in the country, says that the lawyers must receive respect “irres-pective of their standing and seniority”. It also protests against the “hurried and selected manner” in which some Supreme Court Benches hear the cases. (The Hindu, March 3, 2015) The subsequent (…)

• Examinations and Professional Competence

  12 April 2015, by Sudhir Vombatkere

  Cheating in Examinations
  The recent news reports of wholesale cheating in matriculation examinations in Bihar, with pictures of accomplices dangerously climbing the walls of buildings in which examinations were being held, to hand over cheating-aids to candidates, are horrifying. The physical risk taken by the accomplices shows that the cash paid to them—by parents who are okay with cheating, and making arrangements to “help” their wards—is adequate.
  The learning capacity and academic (…)

• Will the Recent Changes in Labour Laws usher in ‘Acche Din’ for the Working Class?

  12 April 2015

  by Anamitra Roychowdhury
  The clear continuity in economic policies between the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government is discernible to any observer of the Indian economy. Finance Ministers (FM) of both the governments being deficit hawks walk the path of strict fiscal consolidation. For example, the UPA FM, P. Chidambaram, in his Interim Budget set the target of Fiscal Deficit at 4.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (…)

• Tribute to Tahira Mazhar Ali

  12 April 2015

  Pioneer of the Pakistani progressive women’s movement and noted Leftist leader Tahira Mazhar Ali passed away in Lahore on March 23, 2015. The editorial in The News International (March 25, 2015) observed: “Daughter of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, landlord and Premier of pre-partition Punjab, and wife of famous Leftist journalist Mazhar Ali Khan, Tahira Mazhar Ali charted out her own path and, some would argue, surpassed the legacy of the two men.” She was among the founders of the Democratic (…)

• The Women Prisoners sang Bulleh Shah

  12 April 2015

  by Jawed Naqvi
  “BY then, I had befriended all the women from the so-called criminal cell,” Tahira Mazhar Ali smiled, her tone toggling between impishness and conspiracy. She was sharing with me one of her many unrecorded stories about the ups and downs in a long revolutionary career. It all came to a slow-motion end on March 23 after a long battle with a stroke. Her work had spanned over seven decades—hectic, chaotic, confusing, rewarding, frustrating and painfully disheartening decades, (…)

• Acquitted for Lack of Evidence

  12 April 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  For those survivors who had been witness to the May 1987 massacre at Meerut’s Hashim-pura locality—where 42 innocent Muslim men were picked up from near a mosque and shot dead in cold blood by the Uttar Pradesh PAC cops—these 28 years have been more than painful. Pain and disgust and anger compounding with last week’s news-reports that the 16 accused cops of killing of those young Muslim men have been acquitted by a Delhi court. Yes, acquitted for lack of evidence!
  Another (…)