Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• PDP-BJP Alliance, Targeting Mother Teresa

  14 March 2015, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  There’s a sense of disbelief-cum-outrage at the PDP-BJP merger for government formation in J&K. Nah, not just a marriage of convenience but I would label it to be a mismatched marriage that wouldn’t last long. Perhaps, the PDP has dug its own grave! Though there are hundreds of unmarked graves in the Valley but this one will be well marked. With this merger, the PDP has taken one of those U-turns that the masses will find difficult to digest. No amount of explanations or those (…)

• Change the People

  14 March 2015

  by L.K. Sharma
  In a message to the tax evaders, a frightening voice says: “We know it all! Every single transaction of yours! You can hide nothing!” Meanwhile, [‘Indians are getting more materialistic... Indian crowd celebrate newly elected politicians in Nagaon, 2013’. Diganta Talukdar/Demotix. All rights reserved.]
  In a democracy called India, the people changed the government. The new government wants to change the people! Dissatisfied with their behaviour and conduct, it wants the (…)

• It Is No ‘Treason’, Mr Sachar

  14 March 2015

  COMMUNICATION
  The veteran jurist and former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Mr Rajindar Sachar, has taken undue offence to the watermark of the Preamble to the Consitution in an advertisement appearing without the words “secular” and “socialist". These words were inserted in 1976 Amendment to the Constitution while the ad was issued on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of India’ s Republic when these words did not form part of the Preamble. He dubs the action as “treason". This (…)

• Wider Perspective of Left Unity

  14 March 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  In recent times Left parties and organisations have been increasingly pushed towards the margins. In such a situation their potential to create a better world should be protected. All social forces, which have a potential to contribute to a just and secure world, should be helped to overcome their problems so that they can make a creative contribution to a better world.
  The task of Left unity has to be explored in this broad perspective. It should not be based only on narrow objectives (…)

• US - Iran Talks Reaching Ides Of March

  14 March 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The US-Iran negotiations have successfully crossed the boulder that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw in the way via his outreach to the American lawmakers. The conclusion can be safely drawn after Netanyahu’s speech that neither do the US lawmakers feel emboldened to enact new legislation intended to complicate the US-Iran talks nor is President Barack Obama feeling browbeaten to backtrack on his policy toward Iran.
  Surprisingly, after all the brouhaha in the recent weeks, (…)

• Vigilance: Need of the Hour

  9 March 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The Finance Minister’s presentation of the Union Budget on the last day of February naturally attracted national attention. However, several other develop-ments have also hogged the headlines of late.
  Serious infighting within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has led to two founder members of the party, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, being removed from the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) by majority vote (11-8) in the party’s National Executive (which has 22 members with (…)

• Union Budget 2015-16: Continuity with the Past Framework

  9 March 2015, by Arun Kumar

  I. Introduction
  The Union Budget 2015-16 is in the same mould as the Budgets in the preceding years. The Finance Minister’s speech announces or mentions a whole host of schemes for different sections of the population. With a projected expenditure of Rs 17.77 lakh crores and a GDP of Rs 141.1 lakh crores, the expenditure is slated to be 12.6 per cent of the GDP. This is no small amount and out of this, a few hundred or a few thousand crores can be given to many popular schemes. Say, for (…)

• Budget and Some Unanswered Questions

  9 March 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  Some aspects of this year’s Union Budget made it different from Budgets of previous years. In previous years it has been customary to compare the new fiscal year’s allocations for various Ministries, sectors and programmes with the allocations made for the previous years.
  The most important aspect of a Budget is (or should be) regarding the impact it makes on the most vulnerable and poor people. In addition, it is also important to see its overall impact on economic well-being and (…)

• On Economic Survey: 2014-2015

  9 March 2015, by Girish Mishra

  Professor Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at the Cambridge University and has authored a number of books such as Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Studies in Historical Perspective, Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, etc. The February 18 issue of Frontline has carried a longish interview with him. V. Sridhar of the Frontline asked him: “India is now led by a Right-wing government, led by a party that (…)

• Unpopular Leadership-style Hurts Kerala’s CPI-M. Would BJP Benefit?

  9 March 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Kerala could well become another Bengal for the Communist Party of India-Marxist. The party’s State Secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, demitted office last week after a 17-year reign. The party lost ground during that period, though the initial years were promising. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, the first after he had fully settled down to the job, Kerala’s Left Front won 18 of 20 seats. In 2009, with his style of functioning a talking point, the result was four out of 20. In 2014, (…)