Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Delhi’s Valentine Day Gift

  16 February 2015, by Uttam Sen

  The AAP’s thumping victory was a token of the fulfilment the people of Delhi preserved for themselves. As an eloquent newscaster described the electoral landslide, it approximated the symbol of affection and goodwill conveyed to a loved one on the martyrdom of a 3rd century Roman saint, his name also tagged to the vigour and vitality associated with the youth. If the statements of the AAP’s prominent leaders were to be heeded, the party was the aam aadmi’s vehicle for realising his/her (…)

• Victory for Democracy: The Voter’s Mind

  16 February 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  The AAP’s historic win in Delhi is, above all, a victory for democracy. What the humble but great Indian voters have shown once again is that when most crucial issues like secularism and democracy are at stake, then they assert themselves against all odds for the protection of our most cherished values. Secondly, the way in which money power has been defeated is another important part of this victory of democracy. There is no doubt that massive funds were used by the BJP in legal and illegal (…)

• BJP’s Fall and Emergence of Ethical Questions in Delhi Elections

  16 February 2015

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  The Delhi election results may come as a surprise to many including the BJP and PM Modi but the decline for the BJP was set in the UP by-elections. Several plausible explanations will be offered by the political pundits but many others, which tilted the balance against the BJP, can be found in the Lok Sabha election victory of the BJP.
  The Lok Sabha poll victory was analysed as the Modi wave. True, it was; but it was never comprehensively analysed to bring out (…)

• Preamble, Secularism and Constitution

  16 February 2015

  by Irfan Engineer
  A controversy was generated over the Republic Day advertisement of the Union Government, wherein the facsimile of the Preamble of the Constitution was shown. The words “Socialist” and “Secular” were missing therein. The BJP leaders’ defence was that it was the facsimile of the original Constitution and therein the words “Socialist” and “Secular” were not mentioned. It is a fact that the words “Socialist” and “Secular” were added in the year 1976 by virtue of the 42nd (…)

• Storm in a Teacup

  16 February 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  The only good thing Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did in her repressive rule during the Emergency was to include the words, Secularism and Socialism, in the Preamble of the Constitution. Morarji Desai, who succeeded her, had all the changes she made in the Constitution deleted, but retained the amendment to the Preamble.
  The Jana Sangh, the earlier incarnation of the BJP that had merged with the Janata Party, raised no objection. Both L.K. Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Jana Sangh (…)

• This Is Treason, Mr Prime Minister

  16 February 2015, by Rajindar Sachar

  An unimaginable crisis is gripping our country. Only a straightforward clear declaration by the Prime Minister can clear it. I am referring to the advertisement issued by Government of India’s I & B Ministry on Republic Day carrying in the background a watermark of the Preamble to the Constitution. But a devious interloping was done by publishing the Preamble as it was in 1950, thus deliberately omitting the words “Socialist” and “Secular” from the Preamble which are in the existing (…)

• The Fall of the Sri Lankan "Monarch"

  16 February 2015, by Apratim Mukarji

  What was unthinkable till the third week of November 20014 in Sri Lanka has, nevertheless, happened, and the “Monarch” Mahinda Rajapaksa has fallen.
  Challenger Maithripala Sirisena, who declared his defection from the Rajapaksa Government and his candidature in the January 8 2015 presidential election as late as November 21 last, achieved the unthinkable and defeated the redoubtable Rajapaksa in a very convincing manner indeed, by a 3.7 percentage point margin.
  Despite the fact that the (…)

• Black Is Not So Beautiful

  16 February 2015, by Kobad Ghandy

  This article by Marxist/Maoist thinker Kobad Ghandy (who is still lodged in Tihar Jail No. 2, Ward 5), written quite sometime ago, reached us only recently. However, it is being published as its contents have still not outlived their validity.
  “It is perfectly possible to pervert the Constitution, without changing the form, by merely changing the form of the administration and to make it inconsistent and opposed to the spirit of the Constitution. Constitutional morality is not a natural (…)

• Lohia’s Quarrel with Nehru

  16 February 2015, by Ashok Celly

  Not many people know that Lohia was an ardent admirer of Nehru in his youth. In fact, Nehru was one of the two leaders he simply adored—the other being Mahatma Gandhi. So when disillusionment set in, his criticism of Nehru acquired a bitterness, an extremist edge. It was like the reaction of a jilted lover. His hero had let him down. Nehru for Lohia became the God that failed.
  As Lohia saw it, the idealist in Nehru had been superseded by the practical politician as India drew close to its (…)

• India-US Bilateral Investment Treaty: Not An Easy Ride

  16 February 2015, by Kavaljit Singh

  It’s official: India and the US will resume negotiations on a high-standard bilateral investment treaty (BIT). In a joint statement on January 25 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama, the leaders affirmed their “shared commitment to facilitating increased bilateral investment flows and fostering an open and predictable climate for investment.” Since 2008, the two countries have been engaged in sporadic discussions to arrive at such a treaty. In the coming days, (…)