Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Normalcy

  7 September 2019, by Badri Raina

  Landlines are up. Normalcy is on the way. Soon other things will follow, As they learn to obey.
  Schools are open too. The children may not be there, But no normalcy can be lasting Without an element of fear.
  The trust of the people will be won Through propagation. And, if that does not work, Through the pellet gun.
  Any child would scream When his toys are destroyed; So, having lost status, they May not be overjoyed.
  But they will see how normalcy Will leave them unencumbered When (…)

• 

  Restore Nehruvian Economic Policies

  31 August 2019

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  The BJP Government had been casting covetous glances on the RBI reserve fund for quite some time and the RBI was resisting it. It was mainly on this issue that the former RBI Governor Urjit Patel resigned in December, 2018. During his time as Finance Minister the late Arun Jaitley tried to curb the autonomy of the RBI by amending certain sections of the RBI Act. That effort thankfully did not succeed.
  The virtual looting of the RBI reserves by the Modi Government is to (…)

• India’s Colossal Blunder in Kashmir

  31 August 2019

  by Ayesha Ray
  In a stunningly dangerous, undemocratic and secretive move, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government repealed Articles 370 and 35a of the Indian Constitution using a presidential order. The government failed to involve all stakeholders in the restive State of Jammu and Kashmir before making its move.
  What’s known as President’s Rule in India— the suspension of a State Government and imposition of direct Central Government rule in a State—was imposed in Jammu (…)

• Abrogation of Article 370: Blatant Subversion of Democracy and Federalism

  31 August 2019

  by Vijay Kumar
  The abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and the promulgation of the Presidential Order dated August 5, 2019 superseding all previous Presidential Orders extending the provisions of the Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 (1) (d) from 1950 till date resulting in nullification of Article 35-A, which restricted the right to property to State subjects alone, followed by bifurcation of the State and converting the Valley and Jammu as Union Territory has (…)

• New India’s ‘sanitised’ concentration camps

  31 August 2019

  by Mustafa Khan
  The acerbic tweet of PM Narendra Modi from France and the meeting of G-7 is indicative of what he has made of the Kashmir Valley. What man has made of man! “Leaders from Opposition who shared stage with Tukde Tukde gang member Shehla Rashid now headed to Kashmir to make political capital when J&K needs peace and calm above petty politics! Well Rahul Gandhi must take Adhir Ranjan Chowdhry so he can show him ‘concentration camps’ in JK.” From the meeting place of the (…)

• Article 35A Is Dead: Long Live Article 35A

  31 August 2019, by Badri Raina

  Few “democracies” worldwide can quite match the amoral nimbleness of Indian “mainstream” politics.
  What was decried less than an hour ago can find blasé approval within the hour, replete with a brazen package of justifications.
  If there is one thing a “mainstream” Indian politician never does, it is to express genuine remorse for a word ill said, a deed ill done, or a volte face effected on the trot on behalf of some thoroughly dishonourable purpose.
  An apology is unheard of, with an (…)

• Holy Cow on Indian Political Chessboard

  31 August 2019

  by Ram Puniyani
  Lynching alone has not been the only fallout of making the Holy cow as central to the agenda of the Hindu nationalist BJP and its co-travellers towards Hindu Rashtra. In the dreaded pheno-menon of lynching the major victims have been the religious minorities and Dalits as highlighted in their letter by 49 eminent film and other personalities. This is just the beginning of the story around the Cow. Much more is in store around the Cow.
  Now Shrikant Sharma, a Minister in (…)

• The return of the strongman in Sri Lanka

  31 August 2019, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The announcement in Colombo on Sunday (August 11, 2019) by former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa that his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will be his party SLPP’s presidential candidate in the election due to be held before December 8 has electrified the politics in the island-country.
  The announcement was expected; but there was an element of uncertainty lingering insofar as the incumbent President, Maithripala Sirisena, also harboured ambitions to seek a second term and Gotabaya (…)

• God on Shoulders: Lumpen Proletariats and the Political Agenda of Kanwar Yatra

  31 August 2019

  by Navneet Sharma and Anamica
  Move your body, Move your bum
  Bhole bam, bhole bam, Bhole bam
  —A popular song emanating from blaring DJs in Kanwar Yatra
  Every year people in and around Delhi and in the so-called ‘cow belt’ wait with baited breath for not only monsoon in Sawan or Shravan but also for the peaceful conduct of the KanwarYatra. This yearly ritual is dreaded because lumpenism and hooliganism run amok on the street and the government not only turns a blind eye to these but (…)

• Bhupesh : Some Reminiscences

  31 August 2019, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  To write about somebody whom one has known for more than four decades—sometimes very closely—is not easy after his or her passing away. For me, Bhupesh Gupta was one whom I have known from the early beginnings of my active political involvement in the late thirties.
  In the small group of young militant Indians in Britain more than forty years ago, groping for a revolutionary path to the country’s freedom, Bhupesh was perhaps the only one who could really claim to (…)