Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Remembering Bhupesh Gupta

  20 October 2014, by Abu Abraham

  The late Kenneth Tynan, theatre critic, once wrote in the course of a review of one of Brendan Behan’s plays: “The English hoard words like misers; the Irish take them out on a drunken spree.”
  Mr Bhupesh Gupta never drank, but when he spoke he took words out in the Irish manner. Words in his mouth achieved a kind of inebriation and they flung themselves out like a mob pursuing an enemy of the people. He spared no one, yet everyone (almost) had a soft spot for him. There were exceptions, of (…)

• Rajya Sabha seats, or Bharat Ratna, or Governorships: All Politics and Populism

  20 October 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  In itself, Sachin Tendulkar and Rekha treating Parliament as one of their trinkets is a non-issue. There are many in our vast and fertile country who have neither the civilisational range nor the intellectual calibre to understand the true meaning of Parliament. If such individuals are given positions they are not worthy of and they mishandle them, it is not their fault; it is the fault of the system that facilitates such mismatch. Indeed, the Tendulkar-Rekha controversy and (…)

• Alan Woods’ State and Revolution Rewriting History

  20 October 2014

  by Paresh Chattopadhyay
  This article is a rejoinder to a part of Alan Woods’ essay, The Ideas of Karl Marx, published in June 2013. To read the full text of Woods’ essay, click http://www.marxist.com/karl-marx-130-years.htm
  We read with considerable interest Alan Wood’s article on the ideas of Marx. in dated January 16, 2014. It is a good pedagogical exercise. At the same time the piece is thought-provoking. In the following lines we give our reaction to only a part of this paper, the (…)

• Education — The Indian Experience

  20 October 2014

  by Abhijit Chakraborty
  The word education is synonymous to the word empowerment and an empowered nation would mean a progressive nation. It has been seen that education enables a country to make progress and improve the standard of living for its citizens. Countries like Japan had made early progress in education during the Meiji resto-ration in 1868 and reaped the benefits of the same. In a modern society, where an important means of communication is through the written medium, being (…)

• De-escalate Border Tensions

  11 October 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Tensions have escalated along the India-Pakistan border with ceasefire violations and firing taking place on the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in J&K since the beginning of this month.
  The gravity of the situation is evident from a press release issued by the India Chapter of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD):
  According to reports published in Indian and Pakistani newspapers, more than 18 civilians have been (…)

• ’Clean India’ Tokenism

  11 October 2014, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  After hijacking the good old broom from Arvind Kejriwal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to go on this latest publicity move. Dragging to the fore, several relevant queries. Can the masses be fooled by these symbolic moves? Can the masses not see through these ‘image-building’ exercises at work? Can the masses not see those dried blood stains of the murdered, on the streets and courtyards and verandahs of Ahmedabad? Can the masses not see those murder-accused riding high on (…)

• Brutal Jihadi Terrorism, now a Fashion among Youth; US Blunders; Wahabism; Pakistan

  11 October 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  So it’s out in the open: Terrorism is the issue of our times. It was a central theme in Narendra Modi’s discussion with Israel’s Netanyahu, a veteran on the subject. It was the main focus of attention during the Modi-Obama talks. The US President went to the extent of agreeing to make efforts to dismantle safe havens for terror and to disrupt financial and tactical support to terror outfits, naming some based in Pakistan.
  Honourable intentions. If even half of it became real, (…)

• Looking beyond the Summit

  11 October 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Summit meetings are not boxing rings which the public watch to cheer or boo at the players punching at each other. Most of the summits are meant for serious business either to thrash out differences or haggle over a coveted prize.
  Judging by this criterion, the Prime Minister of India’s summit with the President of the USA at Washington (May 19, 1994) could be regarded as useful as they noted in clear terms the points of difference on some of the major issues not so (…)

• What Modi has Achieved in the US

  11 October 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US was, in more ways than one, a success. He may not have brought with him anything tangible from America but has created a climate of confidence and won back Washington which always looked at India with suspicion. Here is a person, who was denied a US visa, and yet was able to shame the US Administration with speeches of friendship with America.
  Modi was able to formulate a joint statement with President Barack Obama that goes farther than what (…)

• Editorial: Hindi-Amreeki Bhai Bhai

  11 October 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the United States has been one long reality TV show for Indian news channels. It was not just the PM, who is said to have consumed only hot water through the trip, who contributed to the show. All other trappings of reality TV were present. Indian-American crowds heckling a senior journalist, the journalist losing his cool and heckling them back thus ensuing fisticuffs, well-educated chatterrati justifying it all, an industrialist saying that the PM (…)