Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Idea of India again

  23 May 2014, by Uttam Sen

  While the erudite split hairs over the “idea of India”, one cannot help going back to the pages of some fairly common experience. As a middle-class teen Calcuttan, my deep affinity with a football club in the city’s First Division League was fairly representative in taste. So was the choice of a compeer from a different faith, his loyalties residing in a club which announced his religious persuasion, as much as mine did my place of origin across present-day borders. The players belonged to (…)

• Elections Give BJP Historic Victory, But Some Disturbing Trends Can’t Be Ignored

  23 May 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  There is a healthy tradition in democracy of respecting the people’s verdict in elections no matter how troubling this may be in some contexts. This tradition must be certainly followed after the recent historic general elections in India, particularly when the victory of the BJP/NDA is so huge that it could not have been possible without securng the enthusiastic support of the masses, particularly the youth, over vast areas. This also implies a huge personal triumph for Narendra Modi who, (…)

• Media Tactics renders Election Commission’s Code of Conduct Futile

  23 May 2014

  MEDIA
  by Anil Chamadia
  This article, written before the end of the election process, retains its validity even after full declaration of the poll results.
  The Code of Conduct (CC) imposed by the Election Commission (EC) could be effective only if the people, institutions and political outfits feel constrained while attempting to violate it for their vested interests. Since the days of the First Press Commission till 2002, the Press Council of India (PCI) came out with various (…)

• The Next Five Years Or More

  23 May 2014, by Mukul Dube

  Narendra Damodardas Modi’s supporters cannot be blamed for using words like “historic” for their hero’s (or their party’s) victory in the 2014 general election. The superlatives used by the media — the most common being “tsunami” — are, of course, a business necessity and may be dismissed as marketing bilge.
  Is the election result a big deal? One view was expressed succinctly by Nirmalangshu Mukherji on FaceBook:
  With just 31 per cent of actual votes (21 per cent of electorates, 14 per (…)

• Know Your NaMo: Dalits in Search of ‘Gujarat Model

  23 May 2014, by Subhash Gatade

  A mere perusal of the newspaper reports focussing on the open hearing made it clear that the NHRC had to bite its words to really convey what it heard from victims and also do a lot of explaining over its claims that ‘..[f]uture of the SC community seems to be fairly good in Gujarat as compared to many other States.”

• The Avalanche and After

  23 May 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The following pieces, written by N.C. in December 1970 (before the 1971 mid-term poll) and March 1972 (after Indira Gandhi’s resounding success in the State Assembly elections), are being reproduced here to draw the sharp and glaring contrast between the political situations prevailing in the country 41-42 years ago and now when there is a visible Rightist upsurge after Narendra Modi’s extraordinary victory at the hustings [ensuring absolute majority for a non-Congress (…)

• A Tale of Two Promises

  23 May 2014

  by Asif Nazar
  This article, written before the outcome of the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, reached us after the
  results were out. It is being published since its contents have yet to outlive their relevance.
  The great and glorious festival of democracy will conclude very soon. And there will be party-time for a few political parties and exercise of introspection for most of the political parties. Ideology may be the lifeline of any political party. And there is a tolerance-band (…)

• Indian Politics and Left Parties: Bringing Dange Line Back

  23 May 2014

  On Dange’s 23rd death anniversary
  by Pratip Chattopadhyay
  This article has been written on the occasion of S.A. Dange’s 23rd death anniversary on May 22, 2014.
  The verdict of the Lok Sabha elections 2014 reflects the sorry state which the Left political parties across the country have been reduced to (only 11 seats) particularly in their stronghold of West Bengal where the CPI-M has secured the same number of seats (two) as the BJP with the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc failing to win any (…)

• On Torture and Confinement of G.N. Saibaba

  23 May 2014

  The following is the press release of the Delhi University Community against Police Repression at a press conference on the detention of Dr G.N. Saibaba, who is teaching at Ram Lal Anand College, University of Delhi, at New Delhi’s Press Club of India on May 13, 2014.
  On May 9, 2014 Dr G.N. Saibaba, while returning to his home from Daulat Ram College after examination duty for lunch, was intercepted on the way, blindfolded and taken to Aheri, Maharashtra by the Gadchiroli Police. He was (…)

• A Landslide Victory for BJP

  23 May 2014

  by Sudhanshu Tripathi
  The results of the 16th Lok Sabha elections have clearly shown, perhaps, the rarest of rare democratic phenomenon which was unexpected to even the very wise political pundits who might have relied on the exit polls. Almost all of them were hoping a near likely win for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition with equally possible chances for the Congress-I-led UPA for forming a new government at the Centre. But all these projections have gone awory, clearly (…)