Madanjeet Singh Is No More
Former diplomat, artist, writer, photo-grapher and philanthropist, Madanjeet Singh 88, a UNESCO Goodwill Amba-ssador since 2000, passed away in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in the south of France on January 6,...
View ArticleThe Road Not Taken By Tripura's Left
The tiny North-Eastern hilly State of Tripura is gearing up for the Assembly poll, slated to the held on February 14, 2013. The Left citadel of the region has hardly seen any anti-incumbency factor...
View ArticleSpectacle As Reality
I find myself in a state of mixed bewilderment and despair. I try to keep abreast of what happens in my part of the world, and what do I see? In Tamil Nadu a motion picture, part of the entertainment...
View ArticleThe Mainstream Story
An abridged version of the following piece constituted the author's introductory remarks before the panel discussion on ‘Indian Media Scene Today: Potential and Reality' to mark fifty years of...
View ArticleGrowing Importance of Independent Journals
At a time when increasing trends of corporatisation and heavy-handed commerciali-sation have led to the increasing alienation of the media from the real concerns of the people and society, small...
View ArticleShinde Spoils Rahul's Launch
January 30 is the day when Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu fanatic for the partition of India. Nathuram Godse, who killed him, remained unrepentant and said in his defence in the Punjab High...
View ArticleWhen the Politician Fails
From N.C.'s WritingsWith the onset of summer, the Indian scene has perceptibly changed in the last few weeks, adding to its complexities as also to its instability.In the eyes of many, the rumblings...
View ArticlePakistan is Too Serious a Problem to be left to our TV Anchors
IMPRESSIONSPakistan is in deep trouble. So it is pushing India into deep trouble. Our own professional patriots are pushing India into deeper trouble. The great television anchors would love nothing...
View ArticleRising Incidents of Rape in India: Problem and Solutions
by Sudhanshu TripathiWhether accompanied by violence or not, rape is, in fact, one of the most heinous, savage and lifelong agony and also trauma-inflicted brutalities perpetrated on women, and a...
View ArticleOf Wolves and Men
It is a great mystery to me why wolves should have been saddled with the ill repute of being sexual predators. My experience of reading about animals and watching with commitment the many excellently...
View ArticleIs India the Most Dangerous Place for Dalit Women?
“A wave of sexual assaults has rocked the northern Indian State of Haryana. In the last one month alone, a dozen, mostly Dalit, girls and women have been raped, raising concerns about the security of...
View ArticleViolating the Vulnerable— Manifestations and Attitudes
The latest spurt in crime is focussed on rape, brutal rape, brutal gang-rape. Women who resist rape and fight back are brutally mauled after being raped. In the December 16, 2012, Delhi bus gang-rape...
View ArticleWomen's Victory: Justice Verma Committee Report and the Road Ahead
If the gang-rape of a 23-year-old student—on a Delhi bus on December 16, 2012—led to a sense of both outrage over and despair about the entrenched violence women experience in India, the Report of the...
View ArticleCommunal Challenge to Free India: Some Reminiscences and Reflections
by D. R. GoyalFor a person nurtured in the RSS culture it was not possible to share the euphoria touched off by the advent of independence. All the more so in Punjab which was bearing the brunt of...
View ArticleTribute: D. R. Goyal
Desh Raj Goyal, 84, passed away in New Delhi after a brief illness in the afternoon of February 3, 2013. A veteran journalist and academic, he was the editor of Secular Democracy. From 1963 to 1967 he...
View ArticleOminous Portents in Troubled Times
“From Kashmir to Delhi, Intolerance Cuts Across Religious Boundaries”—read The Times of India's February 5 frontpage headline over two reports of (i) J&K's first all-girl rock band quitting after...
View ArticleGreetings to Mainstream
The following message of greetings were received for the January 29, 2013 meeting in the Capital to mark Mainstream's fifty years.Thank you so much for the invitation. In fact I was thinking of it...
View ArticleMedia Scene Today
To mark fifty years of Mainstream, a panel discussion was held at the India International Centre, New Delhi on January 29, 2013; the topic was “Indian Media Scene Today: Potential and Reality”. Those...
View ArticleCPI on the Hanging of Afzal Guru
The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India has issued the following statement to the press.The secretive hanging of Afzal Guru, a secondary accused in the Parliament attack case, and...
View ArticleThe Valley of Incongruities
From N.C.'s WritingsWhatever may be the substance of the much-advertised point of difference between Peking and Washington over the question of détente, it may be safely assumed that Gerald Ford's...
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