Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Developed Realities in Dark Times

  30 March 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Development is more than often confused with high economic growth. Nah, we don’t even bother to query—What is development? Is development something to do with well-being or more to do with hyped economic graphs? Where is this development taking place? Why can’t we—the apolitical hapless citizens—see even traces of this development? Is this development only for those manning the very system? Who are benefiting by these hyped and bogus declarations of development? Are these (…)

• Tahira Mazhar Ali Is No More

  30 March 2015

  Distinguished Pakistani women’s rights activist and Leftist leader Tahira Mazhar Ali passed away in Lahore on March 23. Her husband, Mazhar Ali Khan, the eminent Leftist journalist, predeceased her several years ago. She is survived by her daughter Tauseef Hayat, sons Tariq Ali and Mahir Ali, grand-daughter Kamila Hayat. Her funeral took place at her residence in Shah Jamal, Lahore on March 24.
  PILER and Pakistan Peace Coalition’s Tribute
  Karachi, March 24, 2015
  Tahira Mazhar Ali (…)

• Growing Opposition amid Change in Public Mood

  22 March 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL The Budget session of Parliament is witnessing a spirited struggle by the entire Opposition against the BJP’s anti-farmer land acquisition legislation. The Opposition’s resistance to the legislation, which seeks to replace the comprehensive Land Acquisition Bill piloted by the Congress and supported by all parties (including the BJP when it was in the Opposition) in 2013, is essentially aimed at placating and appeasing the corporate lobby and multinationals. This is being exposed (…)

• Kashmir: Setting the Priorities

  22 March 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  In 1967, that is, fortyeight years ago, N.C. visited the Kashmir Valley for a few days and held detailed discussions with a wide cross-section of opinion-makers and political personalities of all shades there. On his return he wrote a series of pieces on Kashmir in Mainstream. The following is the fourth and last instalment of the series ‘Special Report on Kashmir’ and was published in this journal’s November 18, 1967 issue. It is being reproduced now that Kashmir is (…)

• Is AAP going the Janata Way?

  22 March 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  When movements convert themselves into political parties they lose their original shape. The ethos of collective leadership takes a backseat and personal assertion comes to the fore. Power gets concentrated in one person. In real, the leadership acquires the meaning of one-man rule, which becomes synonymous for the party.
  It was expected that the Aam Aadmi Party would be different because it was a product of people’s aspirations. The well-entrenched political parties like the Congress and (…)

• Bihar: Laloo in Search of a New Political Pasture

  22 March 2015

  by Arun Srivastava
  Laloo Prasad Yadav’s reluctance to allow his RJD legislators to join the Nitish Government has intrigued the political circles and the experts alike. Even his senior RJD colleagues are unable to decode his silence. His reluctance could have been appreciated if the Nitish Government was on a sticky pitch and was not sure of completing its term till the Assembly elections. In the numbers game also Nitish enjoys the support of the required legislators and naturally in this (…)

• UNION BUDGET 2015-16: Analysing the Estimated Budget: Where is the Plan for the Most Marginalised?

  22 March 2015

  The Union Budget is prepared to execute the state policy and constitutional mandate of a sovereign republic. The Finance Minister leads the budgeting process and its control while the citizens develop an understanding over it according to the atmosphere created by the media and how the political parties project it. However, there exists differences in the opinions of the media, scholars, activists, NGOs, corporates and unemployed depending on how they have been impacted by the Budget. In its (…)

• Remembering Lohia: A Legacy for the Left

  22 March 2015, by C.N. Chitta Ranjan

  Dr Rammanohar Lohia’s 105th birth anniversary falls on March 23 this year. Since his birthday coincided with the day of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, he never wanted his followers to observe or celebrate his birthday. However, we remember him and offer tributes to the abiding memory of that stormy petrel of the Indian socialist movement on this occasion by reproducing two articles. The first article, written by a veteram journalist (the first editor of Mainstream who later (…)

• Dr Rammanohar Lohia: A Tribute

  22 March 2015, by Sumit Chakravartty

  I am certain that the life and activities of Dr Rammanohar Lohia, that remarkable socialist leader who left an indelible imprint on the Indian political scene in both the pre-indepen-dence period and the two decades following independence (that is, till his untimely demise on October 12, 1967), have been propagated throughout the country in the last two years (2009-11) in order to ensure the revival of a vibrant democratic socialist movement which is the imperative need of the hour in the (…)

• Not Lonely in Life or Alone in Death

  22 March 2015

  TRIBUTE
  by Noor Zaheer
  The show is over, the actors and director have taken the last bow and curtain call and from a crowded auditorium after the thunderous applause has died down, friends and acquaintances are walking up with smiles, hugs and congratulations. I look around searching the face of the person responsible for our theatre group being in Agra for the convention of the Indian People’s Theatre Association [IPTA], the one who had been scouring India for units still functioning as (…)