Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Converging Brand into Charisma: The Making and Rise of Narendra Modi

  19 May 2014

  by Navneet Sharma, Pradeep Nair, Harikrishnan B.
  The question whether Modi, the BJP’s PM nominee, is a charismatic leader or is a mere brand of politics has to be always analysed from a vantage point, this vantage point may shift from the implications of the poll results that will be announced on May 16, 2014. However, this question shall be pertinent whether in the Indian context and the rise in the speed of human and information circulation, a pan-national ‘charisma’ could be evolved and (…)

• Political Bankruptcy of the Left

  19 May 2014, by Barun Das Gupta

  communication
  The Central Secretariat of the CPI issued a statement on May 6, which says: “CPI wishes to make it clear that as far as the TMC led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee is concerned, she is actually helping the BJP by polarising the West Bengal voters on communal lines. Her attack on the BJP is a got-up game.”
  The statement betrays the pathetic political bankruptcy of the entire Left, not of the CPI alone. Because the accusation that Mamata Banerjee’s relentless (…)

• A Puppet on a String

  19 May 2014, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  book review
  The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh by Sanjaya Baru; first published in Viking by Penguin Books India, New Delhi; 2014; pages: 301; price: Rs 599.
  Being ruled for centuries by despotic petty rajas and nawabs whose private lives were often not only bizarre but even grotesque (shrouded in secrecy), common Indians had an insatiable curiosity about their life and living style. This propensity about our elected leaders continues even after (…)

• Nigeria: Justice for the Nightly Raiders

  19 May 2014, by Mohan K. Tikku

  “If Boko Haram succeeds in its stated agenda to make the country ungovernable, if Boko Haram succeeds in goading those areas that have victim citizens in the northern part of the country into reprisal actions on the nearest targets, not only will this cause a break-up, it will be very messy. That is the reason some of us have been issuing appeals to community leaders to make sure it doesn’t happen in their communities.” —Wole Soyinka
  Despite such wise counsel coming from one of the most (…)

• In the Grip of Fear and Uncertainty

  12 May 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The nine-phase elections for the 16th Lok Sabha are drawing to a close.
  In the penultimate phase, that took place yesterday, 64 seats spread over seven States went to polls, and the percentage of voting was almost 64. West Bengal (where voting for six seats took place) recorded the highest turnout (81.28 per cent) followed by Andhra Pradesh (76.01 per cent for 25 seats). As of now, polling has taken place for as many as 502 Lok Sabha seats since the start of the elections and (…)

• India at EI Dorado’s Doorstep?: May 16 will show the way

  12 May 2014, by A K Biswas

  As India comes to the final phase of the 16th parliamentary elections, breathless hype across the subcontinent leads many to believe that we are close to the doorstep of El Dorado, which unfolds a legendary story in which “precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins [......] the imagined El Dorado went from a city to a kingdom and an empire of this legendary golden king.”1
  Now the question is if India will vote for development, resulting in overflow of honey and (…)

• Why Banaras is Uncomfortable with Modi

  12 May 2014, by Dipak Malik

  Narendra Modi, the new mascot of the Sangh Parivar, has chosen Varanasi as his spring-board for his prime ministerial ambition in 2014. Nineteen ninetynine saw Lucknow sending Atal Behari Vajpayee on the prime ministerial trajectory. It was different as Lucknow is the city of composite culture and had offered one of the finest Hindustani cultural and literary traditions which represented the essence of the Hindu-Muslim cultural matrix. Narendra Modi’s arrival in Kashi is, of course, (…)

• Secularism in the Valley

  12 May 2014, by Badri Raina

  In this season of hurt sentiments, it is my turn—and with emphasis. It has been declaimed lately from a broad-chested but small-minded podium that Kashmir, pointedly meaning the Valley, has been turned into a “communal” place by the Abdullahs; the barely concealed sub-text being that it always has been so—a communal place.
  I wish you to know that to the extent that my political and spiritual life has been shaped in a fundamental way by my experience of being a born and bred Kashmiri—an (…)

• Modi Admires Obama’s Hunt for Bin Laden

  12 May 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Three different interpretations can be given to the sensational remarks on Saturday (April 26) regarding underworld don Dawood Ibrahim by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. One, he spoke in the heat of the election battle and it could all be hot air.
  But then, Modi was speaking at an exclusive media interview and not addressing a mam-moth rally of one million people chanting ‘Har, Har Modi’ where he would be speaking at the gallery. It’s well-known that (…)

• Suggestions to the Victor of General Elections - 2014

  12 May 2014, by Pritish Acharya

  The ensuing general elections (GE) have witnessed the participation of a large number of parties and political outfits, with many significant and important players in the fray. However, the central players remain the Congress and BJP. Whatever may be the election results, the government cannot be formed without the direct and active involve-ment of either of these two parties. The Congress has remained in power for most of the length of India’s independence, and whenever it has not, the BJP (…)