Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 20, 2021

  20 February 2021

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 20, 2021
  Over the past few years both prominent and little known critics of the Modi government have been targeted by the police at central and state levels in pretty visibly politically motivated cases. There is a growing tendency to file cases under multiple sections of the law and often also on severe charges of sedition. Recently prominent journalists, and a member of parliament, were subjected to harassment when near identical FIRs in several (…)

• BJP Seems Nowhere Near Conquering West Bengal | Barun Das Gupta

  20 February 2021, by Barun Das Gupta

  As these lines are being written, news is pouring in from Punjab that the BJP has been wiped out in the civic elections. It is the Congress which has made a clean sweep, even winning, for the first time in 53 years, it won the Bathinda municipal body. The Akalis had to pay dearly for their past association with the BJP. It had also to kiss the dust. What will be the fate of the BJP in West Bengal where Assembly elections are going to be held in April? Will the party strongman Amit Shah’s (…)

• RSS and BJP are engaged in the fight for their survival | Arun Srivastava

  20 February 2021

  by Arun Srivastava
  Upsurge of the kisan mahapanchayats on massive scale in Haryana, Rjasthan and Punjab and broadening the base of the farmers’ movement has not only unnerved the RSS leadership but has also sharpened the contradiction between the Sangh and the Modi government. But to hide its nervousness the Godi media, the Modi government and the BJP-RSS combine has been citing the thinning out of the crowd at the borders as the movement losing the spirit and vigour. To counter the (…)

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  Shaibal Gupta: A Life Devoted to the Service of Bihar | Muchkund Dubey

  20 February 2021, by Muchkund Dubey

  Dr. Shaibal Gupta, recognized both nationally and internationally as an authority on understanding the roots of Bihar’s backwardness and its social and economic dynamics, passed away in Patna on 28 January 2021. He held many important positions in committees and groups set up by the Government of Bihar and the Central Government, to examine the issues and recommend policy measures for Bihar’s economic development. But he was best known as the founder Member Secretary and Director of the (…)

• Romance and reality of farming over the years | B S Chauhan

  20 February 2021, by B. S. Chauhan

  The ongoing farmers’ agitation in India is generating more heat than light. Suicides by farmers failed to get public attention. Protesting farmers are keeping the TV anchors, politicians, activists and official agencies on their toes. Everyone has an opinion, even those who have never seen a rice field in their life. Some got introduced to farming by films such as Mother India and Do Bigha Zameen. All tend to view this complex issue through the prism of political leanings or beliefs. (…)

• The WEF Agenda Behind Modi Farm Reform | F. William Engdahl

  20 February 2021

  In September 2021 the UN will hold a Food Systems Summit. The aim will be to reshape world agriculture and food production in the context of the Malthusian UN Agenda 2030 “sustainable agriculture” goals. The recent radical farm laws from the government of Narenda Modi in India are part of the same global agenda, and it’s all not good.

• Covid-19 Vaccines: Politics, Nationalism and Diplomacy | K N Ninan

  20 February 2021

  by K N Ninan
  While commending the approval granted by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to two covid vaccines manufactured in India Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that this was a great achievement for realising ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. Of the two vaccines, Covishield made by Serum Institute of India, Pune is based on knowhow provided by AstraZeneca and University of Oxford, while Covaxin was developed in India by Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad with support from the Indian Council (…)

• Modi Cries. India Too Can Only Cry | TJS George

  20 February 2021, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Our Prime Minister cried in Parliament the other day. No, his face didn’t go into contortions of grief and the body did not shake with sobbing. His was a dignified crying that could be managed with a quick flashing of the thumb under the eyeglass and a sip of water. The sight of a democratically elected leader succumbing to emotions of the ordinary kind must have attracted widespread sympathy from those who watched the scene on TV.
  What made him cry? People must have thought (…)

• Karnataka Legislative Assembly: More representative, but less effective functionally | P. S. Jayaramu

  20 February 2021

  by P. S. Jayaramu
  An attempt is made in this article to analyse two important aspects of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly( KLA), firstly, how representative it has been over the decades and secondly, how effective its functioning has been.
  Before getting down to tracing the representative character of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, it is pertinent to make a few observations about the importance of representative assemblies and elected representatives in a Parliamentary democratic (…)

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  Jata Shankar Jha (1926-2021): An Obituary of a Historian | Mohd Hussain Ganie

  20 February 2021

  by Mohd Hussain Ganie *
  Jata Shankar Jha (1926-2021), one of the eminent historians produced by Bihar, passed away on Thursday, 4 February, 2021. His death is indeed a great loss to the academic world. He was born in a village in Rajnagar, (Madhubani), on 22 August, 1926. After completing Masters and PhD in history, Jha started his career with K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute and retired from the same Institute as its Director in 1984. During his long association with the Institute, he (…)