Mainstream Weekly

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• Remarks by UN Sec. Gen to the Security Council meeting on Ukraine, in New York on 5 April

  8 April 2022

  6 April 2022
  UNIC/PRESS RELEASE/066-2022
  FROM THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
  UKRAINE
  Secretary-General Expressing Deep Regret over Inaction on Suffering Ukraine
  Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council meeting on Ukraine, in New York on 5 April:
  The war in Ukraine is one of the greatest challenges ever to the international order and the global peace architecture founded on the United Nations Charter. Because of its nature, intensity and (…)

• Confronting war, rethinking sanctions | Thomas Piketty

  8 April 2022

  From: Thomas Piketty’s Blog, March 15, 2022
  So war is back in Europe, in its most brutal form. A country with 45 million inhabitants is being invaded by its neighbour with three times the population and eight times the weapons. Looking at it from a distance, one might be tempted to compare the situation to the border wars which opposed France and Germany three times between 1870 and 1945. Russia considers Crimea and the Donbass to be its property, as did Germany with Alsace and Moselle. (…)

• Why states lie during war times? | Garima Mani Tripathi

  8 April 2022

  by Garima Mani Tripathi *
  War is always fought on two fronts. On the actual battle ground, war is fought in terms of men and material losses on both sides. Concurrently, at a psychological and propaganda level, both sides also resort to contested narratives about causes of war, losses on each side and claim incoming victory on their side. Truth, then becomes the sacrificial lamb in the alter-ego clashes of rival parties who resort to lies after lies. The ongoing Russia — Ukraine War is (…)

• Interrogating the Ghost of Party Politics | Arup Kumar Sen

  8 April 2022, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Politics has become a part of everyday life of the people in 21st century India. A person is often judged solely by his/her political identity, irrespective of the will of the person. The ghost of this narrow identity politics has a long history.
  Phanishwar Nath Renu’s story, ‘Party Ka Bhoot’, published before India’s independence (1945), brilliantly portrayed the suffocating world of this identity politics. To put it in the words of the English translator of the story, Rakhshanda Jalil: (…)

• The Task Is Cut Out For The CPI-M at Its 23rd Congress

  8 April 2022

  by P. Sreekumaran
  April 5, 2022
  Thiruvananthapuram: All eyes are riveted on Kannur in Kerala, where the 23rd Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is set to begin on April 6.
  Strengthening the party at the national level to make it politically more relevant. That will be accorded top priority at the Congress. For that to happen, the party must regain the mass base and lost space in national political landscape. And all energies will be bent to attaining that prime (…)

• Is Leadership Change Possible in BSP? | S R Darapuri

  8 April 2022

  by S R Darapuri *
  The recent Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election has once again exposed the continuing decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). In this, the BSP has got only one seat and it has been badly wiped out while Mayawati claimed to form the government with an absolute majority. In this election, the vote percentage of BSP has come down from 22.3% in 2017 to 12.7% only. Its 19 seats in 2017 have been reduced to only one and that too the candidate has won on his own (…)

• Savarkar as a diehard Casteist: Evidence from Hindutva archives | Shamsul Islam

  8 April 2022, by Shamsul Islam

  The Savarkar rehabilitation project is taking newer forms. The latest attempt [‘How Savarkar fought for a casteless society’, The Indian Express, 28-02-2022] by the Savarkarites is to claim that “He had imagined a nation free of malevolent social evils such as caste cruelty, Untouchability, and injustice towards women. He advocated a casteless society based on notions of social justice coupled with social cohesion. He wanted to uproot the diversity of the caste system and build a nation (…)

• Chandigarh-dispute: Please handle with care | Prem Singh

  8 April 2022, by Prem Singh

  This comment is not about the history and politics related to the Chandigarh- dispute between the states of Punjab and Haryana that began in 1966. There was a statement by the Central Government through its Home Minister regarding the proposed changes in the administrative system of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The journalists/analysts have stated that the Resolution once again passed in the Legislative Assembly to include Chandigarh in Punjab state was a ’counter-move’ of the Aam (…)

• BJP’s Electoral Ascendancy: Politics of Populism | Nayakara Veeresha

  8 April 2022, by Nayakara Veeresha

  by Nayakara Veeresha *
  Abstract
  The Bharatiya Janata Party (hereafter BJP) has returned to power in the recently concluded assembly elections in four out of five states. The political analysts and the post poll surveys have indicated that the BJP’s electoral mandate was given for the development, governance and welfare. No doubt, the policies of social welfare and target based programmes of the BJP have played a key role in grabbing the voter’s attention; however the point of concern (…)

• My 50 Years as an Independent Writer | Bharat Dogra

  8 April 2022, by Bharat Dogra

  I have just completed 50 years as an independent writer. This is no news for a world busy with big things, but democracy needs truly independent, unbiased journalists and in this context my experiences of five decades have some relevance.
  At the more obvious level, I could contribute about ten thousand articles/reports, and four hundred books and booklets in Hindi and English, apart from 70 short stories, two novellas and about a 100 poems and songs. I could maintain continuity in this (…)