Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Is Russia legally responsible in downing the Malaysian airliner?

  6 September 2014

  by Anwar Sadat
  Does the incident of the downing of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 MH-17 on July 18, 2014, flying from Amsterdam to Kualalampur, by the pro-Russian rebels operating along the Russian-Ukrainian border resulting in the death of all the 298 persons on board, including crew members, involve Russia’s international legal responsibility? The incident of unspeakable death and destruction has evoked criticism by the US President, Barrack Obama, and several European Union leaders. (…)

• Mother India beckons us All

  6 September 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  After forty years of the foundation of our independent republic, the Frankenstein has appeared again—the monster that is out to destroy democracy and plunge this nation into civil war that shall rend asunder thousands of towns and villages of this great country.
  The term communalism does not convey the gravity of the crisis that confronts us today—let it be bluntly stated that what we face today is the demon of Hindu-Muslim hatred. Over a large part of this land, (…)

• Sardar Sarovar Evictees Wait for Justice

  6 September 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  The recent decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam by 17 metres has been widely criticised by social organisations led by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) as well as many eminent citizens on the ground that it violates the legal rights of about 48,000 families in the submergence area of this dam to cultivable land-based rehabilitation. As several reports have pointed out, thousands of farmers, including tribal farmers, workers, fisher folk, artisans, are still (…)

• Som Benegal Is No More

  6 September 2014

  Som Benegal, journalist, writer and poet passed away peacefully at the age of 92 on August 22, 2014.
  He was a well-known theatre director in the 1950-60s and News Editor in the All India Radio in the 1940s. He was also a multi-media specialist in the fields of Radio, Television, Exhibition Design, and Journals since 1942. He was passionate about the independence of the media and served as the Secretary-General of NAMEDIA.
  He served on various committees for the Government of India as a (…)

• BJP’s Electoral Setbacks and Headaches

  31 August 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The electoral success of the joint front of the JD (U)-RJD-Congress in the recent Bihar by-elections has been able to establish not just the limits of the Modi wave but also the fallacy on the part of the ruling combine in general, and the BJP run by Narendra Modi and his protege Amit Shah in particular, to take the electorate for granted. It has once again confirmed that if the secular forces unite to prevent the split in secular votes, the BJP cannot possibly hope to repeat the (…)

• Planning in India

  31 August 2014, by Girish Mishra

  Ever since the ideas about planning took roots in India, certain political formations have been hostile to it. During the 1930s, the Hindu Mahasabha and, later, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh started attacking it. Later, when the Jan Sangh merged into the Janata Party, it took cudgels against it. It supported Morarji’s “rolling plan” which meant that planning was to be buried forever. Fortunately, the Morarji Government did not last long. When the saffron party came out of the government as the (…)

• Remembering Yojana Bhawan

  31 August 2014, by Devaki Jain

  While there is almost universal support for a change of style and focus in the Planning Commission, some of the language used and the attributes given to its earlier purpose and history are incorrect.
  As someone who has been close to those who were engaged with the Planning Commission during some of the earliest plans such as the Third Five Year Plan, and then been part of various committees and individual consultations of the Planning Commission, I recall the lively free-thinking and (…)

• Instead of Dismantling We Need a Better Planning Commission

  31 August 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  One of the most controversial decisions taken by the new government relates to the dismantling of the Planning Commission.
  While this had been talked about since the regime-change in Delhi, the Prime Minister made an official announcement in his Independence Day speech when he stated: “We’ll replace the Planning Commission with a new institution having a new design and structure....”
  This’ll be done in a hurry, as The Indian Express pointed out on August 17—“By next week (…)

• Politics of Kashmir

  31 August 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  Article 370 is not meant to reflect the liberal tilt in the Indian Constitution. It is specific. It gives a special status to the State of Jammu and Kashmir—a status which the people of Jammu and Kashmir won after waging a long, tough fight for freedom both from the British and the Maharaja ruling the state.
  Sheikh Abdullah was in the lead and achieved what looked impossible at one time, an autonomous status within the sovereign, secular Republic of India. Except three subjects—Defence, (…)

• Israeli Killings in Gaza and Our Human Instincts

  31 August 2014, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  First things first. Why did the security forces kill an unarmed 14-year-old protestor in the Kashmir Valley? This boy was merely protesting against Israel’s brutal killings of those hapless Palestinians in the Gaza settlement. At least this young Kashmiri boy had the guts and grit to protest against the ongoing genocide! And instead of honouring his spirit, we kill him! Don’t we civilians have the basic right to protest and cry out?
  In fact, this brings me to the bigger question. (…)