Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Some Major Issues related to Adivasis

  23 February 2015, by C.H. Hanumantha Rao

  1. Major Issues
  The socio-economic condition of the Adivasis as the most marginalised section of our society has been extensively documented. I do not propose to describe their condition again. I would rather like to straightaway raise three major issues for policy-action and further research: First, the restoration, to the extent possible, and protection of the existing land and other natural resource base of the Adivasis; second, the prospects of raising agricultural productivity which (…)

• NITI Aayog: Much Ado about Nothing

  23 February 2015

  by Rasananda Panda
  It is easy to say that the only thing that is constant is change. But change is never easy. Especially when with the help on an executive order you scrap a sixtyfour-year-old institution that has seen the ups and downs of the Indian economy—called the Planning Commission or Yojana Aayog. It is a different story that the same Aayog was created with a Cabinet note in 1951 to show our commitment towards centralised planning. Thus we get the NITI Aayog—a creation of the (…)

• Ukraine: Will the Second Minsk Summit Succeed in Ending Conflict?

  23 February 2015

  by R.G. GIDADHUBLI
  The fighting between the Ukrainian armed forces and pro-Russian rebels, despite a few skirmishes, largely subsided on Sunday, February 15, giving rise to hopes that the ceasefire agreement, signed on February 11 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, might hold.
  The first such agreement was reached in September 2014 in Minsk but this was violated and conflict between the Ukrainian Army and pro-Russian rebels (…)

• Tribute to Som Benegal

  23 February 2015, by S Viswam

  TRIBUTE
  Veteran journalist, writer and poet Som Benegal passed away in New Delhi precisely six months ago on August 22, 2014. His close friend and colleague, S. Viswam, the well-known journalist, has sent the following tribute for publication on the occasion of Benegal’s 93rd birth anniversary.
  22-2-22: A Remembrance
  S. VISWAM
  Not all will agree with me when I say that there are certain games of and in life that are best left to children to play. One of them is the make-believe joy (…)

• Defending Conviction, Discussing Progress

  23 February 2015

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  by Noor Zaheer
  Liking Progress, Loving Change by Rakshanda Jalil; Oxford University Press; 2014; pages 482 + 29 pages Introduction; Rs 1495.
  “........the arrangements might have lacked finesse, but they more than made up in the dynamism of its organisers and the sheer magnetic appeal of the message that was being conveyed from the Rafah-e-Aam Hall. For, after Gandhiji’s call for Satyagrah, the most important mass movement unfurled from within its portals. A literary (…)

• People Assert — Modi-Shah Duo Bites the Dust

  16 February 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  How does one interpret the incredible results of the just-concluded Delhi Assembly elections? Was it a political earthquake, a tsunami or an avalanche that brought about such an unbelievable outcome? Whichever way one looks at it, the fact is that the people have emphatically asserted to reject the Modi dispensation by forcing it to bite the dust at the hustings. This is what has made these elections both historic and memorable.
  The arrogance of power, writ large over the faces (…)

• The People For Ever

  16 February 2015, by Bishnu Dey

  How many brigands have raided our country, how many times? Ravaging village after village, piling up cruelties, crimes! How many bulbuls have ravished our grains, Mothers have crooned of tyrannical reigns, In spite of it all the proud spirit remains Of the people forever! The peasant, the potter, the fisher, the blacksmith, the boatman, the weaver! The soul is immortal in this immortal country of mine, And hence out of Death’s deep mouth comes music adamantine, Here on the margin of (…)

• Have Faith in the People’s Faith

  16 February 2015, by Suhas Borker

  Have Faith in the People’s Faith The people’s barricades are up in sixty-seven zones the juggernaut of the Ashvamedha horse has been bridled and stopped and for once the cries of the last man and woman from the rotten and stinking gutters of the underbelly of Delhi have been heard. It is a wake-up call to the believers of the Idea of India. Have faith in the people’s faith in democracy! Have faith in the people’s faith in the Republic!
  February 10, 2015 Suhas Borker
  [Suhas (…)

• morning after delhi poll outcome: so what really happened? Facing the Anger of the Sane and the Just

  16 February 2015, by John Dayal

  The Aam Admi Party won, the Bharatiya Janata Party got the drubbing of its life, the Indian National Congress drew a blank, as did the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Indian National Lok Dal. And Mr Arvind Kejriwal won hearts embracing his Income Tax official wife, Sunita, in a public display of affection not seen since the first figurines were made in Vrindavan-Mathura many a yug ago.
  Delhi, as the National Capital Territory, sends seven members to the Lok Sabha and three to the Rajya Sabha. (…)

• Revolt of the Disenchanted: How the Mighty are Pulverised

  16 February 2015, by Badri Raina

  Muscular arms spread wide on either side of the lectern, self-love dripping from a habitually cocksure visage, the mighty one thundered thus at one of his several election rallies in the national Capital: “They say how lucky Modi is; he becomes Prime Minister and global oil prices crash by a whopping half; well then, I say to you, why vote for the unlucky, vote for the lucky one.”
  Not so lucky, after all. While the great man thundered thus in complete self-assurance, like Eliot’s Bradford (…)