Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Are Adivasis Hindus? Forthcoming Census and RSS campaign

  28 February 2020

  by Ram Puniyani
  Currently massive protests are going on against the NPR, NCR and CAA. At the same time we are going to begin the process of decadal census in 2021. Already the RSS is active in promoting the NPR, NCR and CAA. At the same time the RSS wants that Adivasis should register themselves as Hindus rather than ticking the column of ‘Others’. As per their spokesperson, in the 2011 census many Adivasis groups ticked that column because of which the population of Hindus came down by (…)

• Oppose the Recent SC Judgment on Reservation

  28 February 2020, by D Raja

  The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) have been provided with reservation in jobs and also in education in the government on the basis of constitutional and statutory provisions in order to address the problems of discrimination, inequality and deprivation caused by castes, which in the words of Dr B.R. Ambedkar constituted “ascending order of reverence and descending order of contempt”.
  But ever since the BJP came to power with Narendra Modi as the Prime (…)

• Putin’s Bombshell: “Real Change for Russia”?

  28 February 2020

  by R.G. GidadhublI
  Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the Duma and decisions taken in the third week of January 2020 announcing the need for the constitutional reforms and the resignations of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Russian Government were a thunderbolt in the clear sky for Russia. It could be argued that while there is relative political stability in Russia under the partnership of Putin and Medvedev during the last nearly two decades and hence this is a (…)

• Massive Mandate to AAP to have Repercussions beyond Delhi

  28 February 2020

  by Sher Singh Sangwan
  The genesis of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) can be traced from the aggressive agitation against corruption since 2011. After the sidetracking of the struggle by the then ruling Congress (UPA), the activists led by Arvind Kejriwal set up the AAP on November 26, 2012. Within a short time, the party made its first electoral debut in the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, where it emerged as the second-largest party, winning 28 of the 70 seats. The party made the (…)

• Anti-Muslim Tirade: Foot Soldiers and Masterminds

  28 February 2020, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Why arrest only the foot soldiers, when the actual masterminds sit untouched. The Hindutva rulers who insist on heaping provocative, threatening, communal, gutter-abusive taunts! They are part and parcel of the political machinery!
  Yes, today it’s the likes of Anurag Thakurs, Kapil Mishras, Parvesh Vermas. Yesterday there were many more — mind you, none of them even bothering to somewhat camouflage or conceal their hate for the ‘other’. All out in the open!
  At the very start of (…)

• Pushing the Country Towards a Civil War

  9 February 2020

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  Sometimes it becomes necessary to call a spade a spade, shorn of euphemism. The BJP is pushing the country to a civil war. For the first time since independence the country has seen such provocative and vituperative communal propaganda in the name of election campaigning. It was a no-holds-barred vile, vicious and vitriolic attack, inciting people to shoot the BJP’s political opponents who do not accept the party’s definition of patriotism and nationalism. And this on (…)

• Union Budget 2020-21: Figuring out its Politics and Economics

  9 February 2020, by Arun Kumar

  The Union Budget has two goals. First, to tackle the current problems plaguing the economy which may be a continuing one or one that has cropped up in the year in which the Budget is drafted. The second goal of a Budget is to try to fulfill the vision that the government puts out. This again could be pertaining to the immediate goal for the coming year or for a longer term. In the present case, the problem has been that the economy has slowed down or, as this author has been arguing, it has (…)

• Economic Survey 2019-20: Fictitious Narratives and Ignored Reality

  9 February 2020

  by Saumen Chattopadhyay
  The Economic Survey 2019-20 (ES) which was tabled in Parliament the day before the Union Budget for 2020-21 was presented on February 1, was supposed to take stock of the Indian economy and give a vision for the future and a direction to the government for making policies. This year, the ES, other than taking stock of the economic situation, has also sought to give a policy signal like previous years as to how to revive the economy and restore the growth momentum to (…)

• Sri Lanka: Gotabaya plunges into true Gotabayaism

  9 February 2020, by Apratim Mukarji

  “Gota’s Goons” is now a popular phrase in Sri Lanka. This is not surprising, because Sri Lanka’s newly elected President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, does not believe in wasting time to get into action.
  Let us talk about a recent manifestation of this Gotabaya dictum. In early December, as journalist Maduka, who was recently transferred to the Lake House Media Department (the Lake House group of media is Sri Lanka’s largest media group owned by the government), was attacked by trade union members (…)

• Nothing Really to Celebrate in the New Year

  9 February 2020, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  Nothing really to celebrate this new year start, as eerie build-ups overtake, as divisive tactics together with marked-targeted-killings take place. Signs of another round of partitioning out there. It’s about time to get out all possible works on the Partition, to try focus on the havoc it had heaped. Maybe then we can realise what could be in store for us, the people of this country, if don’t wake up, sit up and cry hoarse against the implementation of the CAA, NRC, NPR.
  Also, (…)