Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Reform GST Council - Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water | Atul Sarma and Shyam Sunder

  17 June 2022

  by Atul Sarma and Shyam Sunder *
  The Supreme Court (SC) order on GST Council recommendations in (Union of India and ANR versus M/S Mohit Minerals) on May 19, 2022, held:
  “The ’recommendations’ of the GST Council are the product of a collaborative dialogue involving the Union and States. They are recommendatory in nature. To regard them as binding edicts would disrupt fiscal federalism, where both the Union and the States are conferred equal power to legislate on GST”.
  The SC ruling can (…)

• Why India must ratify Ban amendment to Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste Movement & Disposal in order to prevent dumping of waste | Gopal Krishna

  17 June 2022

  by Gopal Krishna
  The 15th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (COP-15) is underway with the 10th Conference of Parties to the Rotterdam Convention and the 10th Conference of Parties to the Stockholm Convention from 6 to 17 June 2022 in Geneva. These meetings are focused on the theme: "Global Agreements for a Healthy Planet: Sound management of chemicals and waste". Prior to the COP-13 of Basel Convention Union (…)

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  Support free speech; condemn hate speech, death threats | IMSD, June 13, 2022

  17 June 2022

  IMSD supports free speech; condemns hate speech, death threats
  Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) deplores the divisive and hate-driven politics behind the statements made by the now-suspended spokesperson of the BJP, Nupur Sharma, but it unequivocally condemns the threats to her life. IMSD also strongly condemns Al Qaeda for threatening retaliatory terror acts.
  IMSD believes that democracy is inconceivable without the freedom of speech, a freedom that is enshrined in the Indian (…)

• Alarm at sharp rise in violence against churches | United Christian Forum (June 13, 2022)

  17 June 2022

  UNITED CHRISTIAN FORUM
  For Immediate Release
  United Christian Forum alarmed at sharp rise in violence against churches and worshippers; demands urgent action by government and leaders
  New Delhi – 13 June 2022
  The United Christian Forum (UCF) has demanded urgent judicial and government intervention to check the rapid rise in incidents of violence, coercion and false arrests, traumatising the community. This persecution is most acute in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, (…)

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  No democracy can exist without freedom of speech - Statement by former state officials | june 12 2022

  17 June 2022

  Statement by Constitutional Conduct Group
  We are a group of former civil servants of the All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments in the course of our careers. Our group has no affiliation with any political party, and we, as its members, believe in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Constitution of India.
  On May 11, 2022, a chorus of appreciation greeted the Supreme Court’s interim orders on a batch of cases which had challenged (…)

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  From Harsh Childhood to Top Politicians | M.R. Narayan Swamy

  17 June 2022, by M R Narayan Swamy

  Leaders, Politicians, Citizens: Fifty Figures Who Influenced India’s Politics; by Rasheed Kidwai
  Hachette India; Pages: 348; Price: Rs 499
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  It is amazing to know that Narendra Modi is not the only politician in India who rose from humble beginnings to ride high in politics.
  As a young man, N.T. Rama Rao struggled to make ends meet as he cycled long distances every day to supply milk to households, hotels and other business establishments. After his mess in Mumbai failed, he was (…)

• Book Excerpt from Kala Pani Crossings | Bhardwaj & Misrahi-Barak

  17 June 2022

  Kala Pani Crossings: Revisiting 19th century Migrations from India’s Perspective
  Co-edited by Ashutosh Bhardwaj and Judith Misrahi-Barak
  Routledge
  2022
  242 p. ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1032332328 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1032332321
  available via amazon.in
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  Edited excerpts from the introductory essay by co-editors
  When used in India, the Kala pani reference is often associated with the cellular jail in Port Blair where freedom fighters and other dissidents were sent by the British (…)

• Russian Supranational Civilisationism and the war on Ukraine | Musaib Rasool

  17 June 2022

  by Musaib Rasool *
  Context
  The current full scale war by Russian forces over the Ukrainian territory is not the result of only a single foreign policy failure on the part of a particular state in a given time period. Rather, a number of historical as well as contemporary factors have contributed to the present crisis, even escalating it beyond the control of the key players involved in the conflict. Richard Sakwa traces the systemic root causes of the conflict and argues that the (…)

• Dispute between China and Taiwan: an ambiguous balancing act of the U.S. | Sheel Bhadra Kumar

  17 June 2022

  by Sheel Bhadra Kumar *
  On 23rd May, 2022, during a joint news conference with the Japanese premier Fumio ki shida before the start of the QUAD, the president of the United States, Joe Biden made a statement that created a hyperbolic controversy. In a reply to a question on whether the U.S. will come to the rescue of Taiwan in a situation of invasion by china, the U.S. president answered in affirmative. It set off an angry response from the government in Beijing which vowed ‘’firm action (…)

• Gramsci’s Political Imagination | Arup Kumar Sen

  17 June 2022, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Antonio Gramsci was born in Sardinia in agrarian Southern Italy, and later moved to the industrial North. Social life in Sardinia had a lasting impact on Gramsci’s political imagination. Togliatti, in his essay “Gramsci sardo” (“Gramsci the Sardinian”), recalled:
  “Gramsci made me undertake a minute investigation of the facts of Sardinian social life…we established the principal dates when ‘continental’ capitalism penetrated into Sardinia, and when the island was subjected to the (…)