Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• A Weak Prime Minister

  28 September 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  “I did my duty” is the defence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the charge that he was aware of corruption taking place in the mobile (2G spectrum) and sale of coal mines and did not do anything to stop the corrupt deals going through. That he himself is above board goes without saying but it does not absolve him conniving at open corruption going on under his nose.
  The report by the former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai is so damaging that the former Prime Minister (…)

• UP By-elections are a Lesson for BJP

  28 September 2014

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  The recent by-elections are a reminder to the BJP that all is not well with it. The honeymoon period being enjoyed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is finally over. The defeats in these by-elections are in a series. From Uttarakhand to Bihar to Uttar Pradesh and other States show that the BJP has failed to maintain the fund of goodwill the people generated during the Lok Sabha elections.
  The by-elections in UP are important as a case study to understand the shift (…)

• Electorate’s Rebuff to Communal Extremism

  22 September 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The results of the just-concluded State Assembly by-elections have rattled the BJP. Of the 29 seats that went to polls, the BJP won 12, SP eight, Congress seven and others four. But what was most significant, the ruling party at the Centre lost 13 of the 23 seats it held in UP, Rajasthan and Gojarat, the three States (besides Madhya Pradesh and Bihar) which had enabled it to win an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha polls last May. As The Times of India correctly pointed out, it (…)

• Xi Jinping Visit and Some Relevant Facts

  22 September 2014, by Barun Das Gupta

  COMMENTARY
  During the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India, a series of agreements—aimed at enhan-cing Chinese cooperation with India—have been signed. However, while a detailed assessment of the visit will take some time, the following relevant facts need to be borne in mind.
  1. The fact that the Chinese President was staying in India as a guest, did not deter the PLA from escalating the level of confrontation with the Indian Army in Ladakh, especially at Chumar.
  2. Beijing (…)

• Which side are you, Mr Rajnath Singh?: An open letter to the Union Home Minister

  22 September 2014, by Shamsul Islam

  Rajnath Singhji,
  While talking to The Indian Express (New Delhi, August 24, 1914) you described yourself as a “Swayamsewak of the RSS”. As the Home Minister of the country you must have taken oath to uphold the Indian Constitution which is based on the principles of democracy, secularism, federalism, socialism and justice. However, there is going to be a serious conflict of interests between the above-mentioned fundamental principles of the Indian polity and your membership of the RSS. As (…)

• Sacked by Rajiv, A.P. Venkateshwaran remained a Legend: Remembering a no-nonsense tradition of wit

  22 September 2014, by T J S George

  TRIBUTE
  Retired Foreign Secretary A.P. Ventakesh-waran’s passing a few days ago attracted widespread attention. The main reason was that it recalled Rajiv Gandhi’s arrogant way of belittling others. His public scolding of Andhra’s Congress Chief Minister T. Anjiah offended all Telugu people. His public denigration of Karnataka’s respected Congress Chief Minister Veerendra Patil annoyed all Kannadigas. His seemingly casual announcement of Venkateshwaran’s removal provoked the Indian Foreign (…)

• Obama Launches His War, Finally

  22 September 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The United States President, Barack Obama, unveiled in a major speech on September 10 his strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The strategy has no timeline and, quintessentially, the US will pit Muslims against Muslims in a grim war through the deployment of ‘smart power’, which would ensure that American casualties are avoided. From all appearance, it will also be a self-financing war funded by the petrodollar Gulf Arab states of the Middle East. (…)

• Pandits hit Politics in Kashmir

  22 September 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  Kashmiri Pandits, like Punjabi Hindus, have no homeland to return. Both want to go back. But the militancy that ousted them is still strong. On the top it is the local population which has been contaminated by the fundamentalists.
  Some Pandits who have returned are unhappy. They find that the atmosphere of secularism is, by and large, a memory of the past. They have the feeling of being strangers at places where they and their forefathers lived happily.
  Religious bias has built walls (…)

• Blindman’s Buff

  22 September 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  While the national and international focus is naturally rivetted upon the uncertain future of the Charan Singh Government, the significant point is that every one of the major political groupings is also faced today with the prospect of serious instability and is not sure about the way it would go by the time Parliament reopens. This by itself is a measure of the dimension of the present political crisis.
  The Janata Party has been trying hard to put on a brave face (…)

• Rule by the Majority

  22 September 2014, by Mukul Dube

  Where is India, now that the BJP has been in power in Delhi for a period? Bharat Bhushan, writing in the Business Standard, uses the excellent expression “ambient intolerance” to describe our present situation. The Hindutva agenda—together with all that underlies it—is rapidly permeating the very air we breathe. (http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/bharat-bhushan-ambient-intolerance-goes-up-114072901247_ 1.html)
  He writes elsewhere that the PM, N.D. Modi, made a gift to the (…)