Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Practical Solution: Citizenship Card and Domicile Card

  24 March 2020

  by Diptendra Raychaudhuri
  Politics in India has of late become an art of making simple things complex, and at times even incomprehensible. It has all happened thanks to overdose of politics. In other words, India has become an example of how too much politicisation of simple narratives contributes to anarchy.
  Take, for example, the question of updating the National Register of Citizens, or the NRC issue. It has failed in Assam after making the people face an unimaginable degree of (…)

• Corona Pandemic, Scindia’s Exit, HC’s Censure

  15 March 2020

  EDITORIAL
  The outbreak of novel coronavirus (Covid 2019) has lately been described as a pandemic, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Thus all visas, barring those in select categories, have been suspended till April 15, 2020.
  The Centre has also advised all States and Union Territories to invoke the provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, thereby enabling them to enforce advisories whenever necessary.
  On the political plane the situation appears dismal for the (…)

• Jyotiraditya Finds New Pasture

  15 March 2020, by Barun Das Gupta

  Jyotiraditya Scindia, the scion of the royal family of Gwalior, who grew up in the Congress for eighteen years and one of those whom the people believed the mantle of the Congress will eventually devolve on, has deserted the party and found a new pasture in the BJP. In defence of his defection to the saffron party, Scindia has alleged that the Congress has ceased to be the party that it once was.
  Granted that the Congress has ceased to be what it was, granted that the Congress has become (…)

• Whither the Muslim Community?

  15 March 2020

  by M.A. Sofi
  Barring a miniscule fraction of their entire population in the world, there is precious little to show for the highest level of scientific/mathematical competence in the contemporary Muslim world. This despite the surprising appearance on the scene of such great figures as the Physicist Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam from Pakistan or the Fields Medalist Maryam Mirzakhwani and Faridoon Shahidi from Iran, even as all of them achieved their scientific glory while carrying out their (…)

• Delhi Violence: Genesis of Carnage

  15 March 2020

  by Ram Puniyani
  They say ‘history repeats itself first as a tragedy and then as a farce’. In the case of India, communal violence not only keeps repeating itself, the pattern of the tragedy keeps changing every next time. Some features of the violence are constant, but they are mostly under the wraps. The same can be said about the Delhi violence (February 2020). The interpretations, the causative factors are very discernible, but those who are generally the perpetrators have a knack of (…)

• Secularism on Trial

  15 March 2020, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  We as a nation are proud of the fact that we are a secular democracy. The test of our secularism does not consist in our protestations, however loud these may be, but in the manner we conduct ourselves towards the minorities who live and toil in this far-flung Republic of ours. Not only have we as a nation to ensure security to the minorities but should be able to instil into them a sense of security through our conduct. It is this challenge the nation faces today. (…)

• Cruelty, Betrayal, Resurgence: Notes from the Republic at a Crossroads

  15 March 2020, by Badri Raina

  We must concede that the honourable Home Minister of India has an impeccable sense of priorities.
  While bodies were still being gathered and counted in northeast Delhi, he was promptly off in Kolkata to ensure that the abject defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Delhi Assembly elections was not repeated in the municipalities of West Bengal.
  And if that required zestful supporters there as well to be shouting the “shoot the traitors” slogan, so be it. Shah made no complaint.
  It (…)

• Who are the Terrorists in the coup d’etat during President Trump’s Visit?

  15 March 2020

  by Mustafa Khan
  It was a coup. And the unravelling of events now in 2020 Delhi and in the Gujarat genocide of 2002 has striking resemblances. The inductive and deductive process of reasoning shows who the real terrorists are. Three neighbours who lived together cheek by jowl went to lodge a complaint with the police in Delhi in the aftermath of Trump’s departure. Rahis Ahmed, Harish Garg and Shakir. On reaching there Rahis and Shakir were detained as rioters and the third was allowed to go (…)

• Popular Challenge

  15 March 2020

  by Sardar Amjad Ali
  A political system is not a gift of nature. It is essentially man-made. The architects of the system build it up according to their faith, belief and object to cater to the services of those who are its ultimate beneficiaries.
  But who are those architects? The answer to the question can not be conclusive. Political history had left before us diverse and varied nomenclature of the architects of those system, such as monarchs, fascists, socialists, democrats etc. (…)

• Defending Modi of Delhi Violence has an Ominous Design

  15 March 2020

  by Arun Srivastava
  Some liberal and anti-Sangh activists have been feeling delighted at Narendra Modi deputing the NSA chief Ajit Doval to the riot-hit areas of Delhi. In a normal course it was the duty and responsibility of the Home Minister, Amit Shah, to visit the area and assuage the feelings of the riot victims. But the task of applying balm to the injured was done by Doval at the initiative of Modi.
  This move of Modi is being interpreted as Amit Shah falling out of favour with (…)