Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Troubled Times for the Constitutional Republic

  31 August 2014, by Badri Raina

  Modiji became the Prime Minister of the Republic by virtue of two circumstances: one, having been declared the prime ministerial candidate by the Bharatiya Janata Party which won the elections, and, two, by taking the all-important oath of office to protect and preserve the Constitution as by law established. As a reminder to ourselves, that Constitution defines the republic as “India that is Bharat” rather than as anything else, such as Hindustan.
  Those who have recently, however, (…)

• BJP’s yatra Failed to Realise its Objectives

  31 August 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  who has won, and who has lost? The President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, can certainly claim that his mission was fulfilled when he unfurled the Tricolour at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk in the wintry morning of January 26, even if the last lap of the ekta yatra had to be done flying in the IAF transport Anton-32 plane.
  The huge concourse that the yatra had gathered at Jammu could not however cross the Banihal—not only because of the bad weather (…)

• Analysing Anarchy: Aroma of AAP in Indian Politics

  31 August 2014, by Kamalakanta Roul

  This article was written quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  The sensational debut of the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections and the subsequent developments which forced the party to form the government in the national Capital heralding an era of transforming power from the elite to the common, from the rulers to the ruled, from the oligarchs of democracy to the objects of democracy, has also provided an alternative political space for the aam (…)

• Modi in the Frame of the RSS’ Vision of a Hindu India

  31 August 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remark certainly does reflect the concern of an overbearing parent that the progeny would go astray. Bhagwat, through his observation that the BJP came to power at the Centre because the common man wanted a change and an individual alone could not have ensured the party’s victory, primarily aimed to shield Narendra Modi from the accusation that he was implementing the RSS agenda. We ought to remember that the RSS under Bhagwat is not the RSS of (…)

• Ukraine Crisis: Humanitarian Catastrophe in Novorussia

  31 August 2014, by Arun Mohanty

  Ukraine has been plunged into deep chaos and violence of unprecedented magnitude in less than a year. The crisis—that began with the throwing of Molotov cocktails against the riot police in Kiev’s Euro Maidan—has snowballed into a full-scale civil war with use of heavy artillery, airstrikes, even ballistic missiles. Though Ukrainian President Pyotor Parashenko had promised to put down the rebellion in the east of the country in a few hours, the military confrontation between the government (…)

• Another Chapter in Iraq

  31 August 2014, by Uttam Sen

  When a tentative nuclear deal was struck with Iran around November last year there was conjecture on repositioning of groupings in West Asia and its consequences. Iran, Iraq, and Syria, among others, share the Shia persuasion and were assumed to comprise the counter-weight against the Sunni Al-Qaeda and its formidable, if sometimes contradictory, patrons among the Arab rich. The earlier “Arab Spring” casualties included Egypt, particularly its authoritarian President, Hoshni Mubarak, also (…)

• Youth and the Struggles for Equality and Justice

  31 August 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  Over a long historical period, one factor which has provided strength and dynamism to human society generation after generation has been a natural tendency on the part of a large number of youth to take sides against injustice and in favour of justice, against inequality and in favour of equality. One can call this a ‘natural’ tendency because youth is the age of innocence when truth and ideals have an almost natural appeal. As this is the most energetic age-group, every generation of human (…)

• ‘No Foreign Christian Missionary is Working in India’: Interview with civil rights activist Dr John Dayal

  31 August 2014

  Six years after the outbreak of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district of Odisha, killing more than one hundred Christians, mostly Dalits and tribals, and displacing sixty thousand of them, justice remains denied to the victims and survivors. While the civil society observed the anniversary of Kandhamal violence on August 25 all across the country, Md. Eisa, Abdul Raheem Umary and Abhay Kumar conversed with Dr John Dayal, a well-known civil rights activist who has been a (…)

• Corrupt China and Lessons for India

  31 August 2014

  by Prachi Aggarwal
  Since Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in India in September, comparisons and contrasts of both the leaders has begun with renewed vigour. It cannot be doubted that Narendra Modi received a landslide victory because he was perceived as a strong alternative to the 60-year-old corruption plaguing the Indian political system. However, corruption has not only been bearing resonance in weak democracies like India but also has reverberation in strong political (…)

• INLD Victory in Hisar: A Game-changer in Haryana Politics

  31 August 2014, by Ranbir Singh

  by Ranbir Singh
  The victory of the INLD candidate, Dushyant Chautala (grandson of O.P. Chautala and great grandson of legendary Jat leader Devi Lal), over the BJP-HJC alliance candidate, Kuldeep Bishnoi (son of former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal), by a margin of 31,847 votes from the Hisar parliamentary constituency may prove to be a game-changer in Haryana politics. It is pertinent to mention that Kuldeep Bishnoi had been projected by the alliance as the prospective candidate for (…)