Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Citizen’s Solidarity with the Voices of Democracy demanding the immediate release of the incarcerated in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case

  20 August 2021

  17 August 2021
  We, the undersigned, condemn the continued incarceration of the academics, cultural activists, human rights activists, lawyers, poets and trade unionists arrested in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case and unitedly demand their immediate release. After three years of media trial, harassment, raids and arrests of 16 persons, one of the arrested, Father Stan Swamy died on July 5th following wanton medical neglect in custody amounting to institutional murder. Those who (…)

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  Table of Contents, Mainstream, Aug 14, 2021 - Independence Day Special

  13 August 2021

  * 25 Years of People’s Plan Campaign in Kerala | Jos Chathukulam
  * Questions over Mangboilal Lhouvum and AFSPA | S.G.Vombatkere
  * Independent India: Dreams Unfulfilled | Ram Puniyani
  * Those Who Giveth, Those Who Taketh | TJS George
  * Jamshedpur ‘Underworld’ and Changing Nature of Crime | Sajjad & Ahmad

• Thoughts on the eve of I-Day 2021

  13 August 2021, by SC

  We are again on the eve of another Independence Day, this time our 75th. On this auspicious occasion, our thoughts go back to our valiant fighters countless of whom had been martyrs while fighting the alien British rule that bound this nation and its people in colonial bondage for 250 years till its freedom, as an independent and sovereign country.
  On that day, i.e. August 15, 1947, our first Independence Day Jawaharlal Nehru had as the first Prime Minister of this free nation declared: (…)

• 25 Years of People’s Plan Campaign in Kerala | Jos Chathukulam

  13 August 2021

  by Jos Chathukulam
  This August 17 marks the silver jubilee of the People’s Plan Campaign (PPC) in Kerala. The introduction of PPC was hailed as a milestone in the realm of democratic decentralization as it played a significant role in fostering local democracy, devolution of functions, funds and functionaries (3Fs) and decentralized planning in the state of Kerala. It was also the most extensive and efficient decentralization program undertaken in India. The PPC has been considered as a (…)

• Mangboilal Lhouvum and AFSPA: Are we asking the right questions? | S G Vombatkere

  13 August 2021, by S G Vombatkere

  Mangboilal Lhouvum
  The death of Mangboilal Lhouvum, a daily wager and father of four, on August 4, 2021, in Manipur, has brought extra-judicial killings once again onto the ‘front page’ .
  The horrific manner in which the poor man died has raised great, widespread concern and anger, especially in Manipur. The killer is allegedly an army man who was named by Mangboilal in his dying moments. This has yet again raised outcry against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA). (…)

• Independent India: Dreams Unfulfilled | Ram Puniyani

  13 August 2021

  by Ram Puniyani
  Musings on 75th year of our Independence
  With India getting freedom from colonial rule, the first Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru summed up the aspirations and dreams of the leaders and participants in the movement in his famous and apt speech “Tryst with Destiny”. He stated, “The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us.” True to these words he initiated a process of strengthening of (…)

• Those Who Giveth, Those Who Taketh | TJ S George

  13 August 2021, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  First impressions are of course misleading. When Savji Dholakia bought a bungalow in Mumbai’s classy Worli Sea Face for Rs 18 crore, the image of the "filthy rich" must have crossed many minds. But that image no doubt softened when further information about this rich man became available. Apparently he is an exceptional rich man. He shares his wealth with his employees. Gifts are routinely given by him to his staff; not naam-ke-wastay gifts, but gifts like houses and (…)

• Jamshedpur ‘Underworld’ and Changing Nature of Crime | Sajjad & Ahmad

  13 August 2021

  by Mohammad Sajjad and Md. Zeeshan Ahmad *
  ABSTRACT
  This essay attempts at exploring the phenomenon of gangsterism and “entrepreneur criminal” in a small industrial town, Jamshedpur. In recent decades, phenomena of organised crime in rural areas and in small towns have mushroomed like menace. Yet, this remains largely neglected in academic explorations. Caste factor is looked into the composition of institutional politics. We often hear of crime-politics nexus, yet, it is hardly (…)

• Mystery over Netaji Subash Chandra’s death Lingers | Rajaram Panda

  13 August 2021, by Rajaram Panda

  by Rajaram Panda
  It is almost established that Netaji Subash Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in Taihoku, the present day Taipei, Taiwan, on 18 August 1945. However, conspiracy theories appeared within hours of his death, which persisted for decades and kept alive various martial myths about Bose. Many of his supporters in India and elsewhere refused at the time to believe the fact or the circumstances of his death. What has transpired from credible sources that Subash died of (…)

• Parliament Disruption: Dictatorial axe attack on Indian democracy | Mondal & Jana

  13 August 2021

  by Mohiuddin Mondal and Abhijit Jana * Democracy as defined by Abraham Lincon, the sixteenth president of the USA, is "government of the people for the people and by the people" People means the citizens of the state, those who have the authoritative power of consent. That power is handed over to the political leadership, which has committed multiple security promises, including food, clothing, and shelter, for five (…)