Mainstream Weekly

Bengal Local Poll Results Don't Bode Well for the Bjp, Left

Praful Bidwai — 2015-05-09T19:34:00Z

The Trinamul Congress has pulled off a massive victory in West Bengal's municipal elections by winning 71 of 92 civic bodies (up from 38 won in 2010). Its Kolkata win was even more crushing: 114 of 144 wards (95 in 2010). The entire Opposition accuses the TMC of rigging the elections—a charge that carries some credibility given the scale of the TMC's victory, huge winning margins of some candidates (for example, 15,000-30,000 votes), and the party's known reliance on muscle-power.
The TMC (…)

- 2015

Reimagining Strategy, Returning To Grassroots : Challenges before Yechury

Praful Bidwai — 2015-05-02T10:42:49Z

The election of Sitaram Yechury as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist is noteworthy not least because the CPM, with one million members, is the world's second largest Communist Party (after the Chinese), but also because it comes at a make-or-break moment in the nine decades-long history of the communist movement in India.
Whether and how ably Yechury is able to stem the decline of his crisis-ridden party and rejuvenate and energise it will greatly influence the (…)

- 2015

A Nightmare Materialises in India: Hindutva - Capitalism Takes Power

Praful Bidwai — 2014-06-01T14:03:34Z

The Lok Sabha election has produced what was easily the worst conceivable outcome by giving an outright majority to the Bharatiya Janata Party under a man who is widely believed to have been complicit in mass killings of Indian citizens belonging to one faith, and who even 12 years on has not been fully exonerated by the country's legal system despite its compro-mised, semi-functional nature, and vulnerability to diabolical manipulation.
Make no mistake. Despite a limited (31 per cent) (…)

- 2014

Landmark Judgment on Gay Rights: Litmus Test for Tolerance

Praful Bidwai — 2009-07-18T09:56:01Z

The Delhi High Court judgment in the Naz Foundation case is a landmark verdict which decriminalises homosexuality and strikes a blow in favour of personal freedom on the solid foundations of inclusiveness and respect for diversity. It deserves to be welcomed by all those who value constitutional morality and the principles of personal privacy and human dignity. It “reads down” Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code—which treats “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” as a punishable (…)

- July 2009

After Congress‘ Rejuvenation in Election 2009: Need for an Indigenous New Deal

Praful Bidwai — 2009-06-22T17:27:58Z

The great story of Election-2009 is the Congress' rejuvenation on an inclusive pluralist-secular platform and the electorate's emphatic rejection of the BJP's divisive, communal politics. The Congress has got its second wind and overtaken the BJP by 90 seats and a hefty 10 percentage points in votes. There is overwhelming evidence that the key to its performance lay in its projecting itself as an advocate of the caring state on a broadly Left-of-Centre or social democratic platform through (…)

- June 2009

Tribute: Smitu Kothari

Praful Bidwai — 2009-04-18T18:48:04Z

Nothing sums up Smitu's involvement with civil society organisations and social movements—that is to say, the core of his life-activity—as eloqu-ently as the brilliant calendar his organisation, Intercultural Resources, produced three months ago.
The calendar is right in front of me as I write this. It is called “Social Movements in India”. Each month is devoted to a specific theme, such as agitations against land acquisition and displace-ment, movements for women's rights, (…)

- April 2009

US Presidential Poll Outcome: A Welcome Win, but Don't Expect Too Much

Praful Bidwai — 2008-11-11T22:09:55Z

The election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States marks a welcome turning-point in American history and real progress in a society where a Black could have been sold literally as a slave just 140 years ago, and where s/he couldn't even vote just 40 years ago.
It restores one's faith in the possibility of genuine change for the better, or greater inclusive-ness and growing respect for diversity and pluralism in a relatively conservative society. (…)

- November 8, 2008

Blood On Their Hands

Praful Bidwai — 2007-11-28T10:26:59Z

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's rationalisation of the violent “recapture” of Nandigram by CPM cadres as mere “retaliation” against their opponents, who were paid back “in the same coin”, is one of the most brazen defences by an Indian leader of the state's abdication of its fundamental responsibility to protect the life and limb of all its citizens. What Nandigram witnessed was a CPM campaign of armed violence to regain control of two of the area's three blocks, which (…)

- November 24, 2007