Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Intellectuals’ Appeal to Defend Secular Democracy

  29 April 2014

  Never before in post-independence India have political forces, which are a front for an organisation committed to creating a Hindu Rashtra, made as strong a bid for power as in the coming elections. These forces are led by a person who presided over a pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and has never expressed any contrition over his role in that ghastly incident. And they enjoy the backing of the most powerful corporate houses in the country. The prospect of this alliance of corporate (…)

• Stop Election Violence, Join Wider Left Unity: Open Letter to India’s Maoists

  29 April 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  communication
  It was extremely distressing to read in newspapers today that 14 persons, including seven members of a polling team, were killed in landmine blasts triggered by Maoists in Chhattisgarh on April 12. These election-time attacks are extremely shocking as elections, despite several problems, are an essential part of democracy.
  This letter is also a request to you to reconsider your methods and strategies so that a broader unity of Left forces can be established for peaceful (…)

• Elections: Trends and Projections

  29 April 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  in the midst of a general election, it is obviously unfair to predict who or which party is going to emerge victorious or be in a position to form the next government. This is doubly true in a situation facing us today in which no party can claim to win outright the majority of seats in the Lok Sabha. The absence of a ‘wave’ or a definite issue round which the election campaign has centred makes all forecasts mere guesswork. However, there are certain trends which are (…)

• West Bengal Scenario: Will Mamata Learn from her Mistakes?

  29 April 2014, by Amitava Mukherjee

  If psephological gurus are right then there are prudent reasons behind Mamata Banerjee’s recent political postures. In spite of the drubbing she has received from Anna Hazare, it may be a distinct possibility that her Trinamul Congress (TMC) may turn out to be one of the deciding players in the formation of the next Union Cabinet after the conclusion of the Lok Sabha election. Although the “gale of change” which had brought Mamata to power in West Bengal in 2011 has certainly ebbed a bit, (…)

• Jumble of Indian Politics

  29 April 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  India is halfway through the Lok Sabha election process. Two factors have come to the fore so far: caste and money. I am dismayed about caste. I had imagined that in some 67 years since independence, the nation would have matured enough not to be swayed by baser instincts. Lately, religion has been inducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
  The appeal in the name of religion in the fifties was understandable because the country had been partitioned on the basis of religion in August (…)

• A Rejoinder to Maxwell’s Article

  29 April 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  communication
  If some disparaging remarks about me make Neville Maxwell happy, I do not want to grudge him that. What disappoints me is a streak of self-righteousness which runs through his article published in the Mainstream. [“On Writing India’s China War”, Mainstream (April 12, 2014)] Editors and others at The Times, London, never referred to me as a stringer. They would address me as their correspondent and publish my dispatches under my by-line. I worked for the paper for 25 years. (…)

• Afghanistan: Obama Wants Minimal US Military Presence

  29 April 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The high probability, as things stand, is that there will be a runoff in the Afghan presidential election. The final results of the April 5 election will be known in another three weeks only. The current front-runner, Dr Abdullah, is apparently reaching out for support from his rival candidate, Zalmay Rassoul, in a runoff, which could be a winning coalition.
  There are allegations of election irregularities, but there is unlikely to be any serious conte-station of the election results. (…)

• Is Manmohan Singh as Innocent as Sanjay Baru Makes Out?

  29 April 2014, by Barun Das Gupta

  IN LIEU OF BOOK REVIEW
  Sanjay Baru’s controversial book (The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, Penguin India) portrays the Prime Minister as a helpless minion in the hands of Congress President and UPA chair-person Sonia Gandhi. Baru was the PM’s media adviser and chief spokesperson from May 2004 to August, 2008. Which means that he left that post before the 2009 general elections which brought the UPA to power for the second time.
  The question that (…)

• April Day of Birth and Death

  29 April 2014, by Badri Raina

  (On the occasion of William Shakespeare’s birth and death on April 23)
  A new born babe you came to us
  Under a Stratford roof;
  Was there across your tender brow
  A mark, a foretold proof
  That your quill was already in your palm,
  And an infinity in your head,
  Eyes that saw histories before,
  And the worlds to come ahead?
  Your grammar came not from the school nearby
  But from a well spring of givenness;
  To which you added sentient empathy
  Unscarred by prejudice.
  You (…)

• An Ode to Anuradha - On her Sixth Death Anniversary

  29 April 2014, by Kobad Ghandy

  The following was sent by Kobad Ghandy from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail to the Mainstream editor on April 12, 2014: “Through a poem by Rumi in memory of his soul-mate and idol, Sham Tabriz, a fate similar to what I faced on this day six years ago.”
  Your Face
  You may be planning departure, as a human soul leaves the words taking almost all its sweetness
  with it. You saddle your horse.
  You must be going. Remember you have friends
  here as faithful as grass and sky.
  Have I failed you? (…)