Our Leaders Ignore the Rules of Democracy and Play by Religion, Caste and...
IMPRESSIONSPoliticians' shenanigans are getting bolder and nastier by the day. The Narendra Modi personality cult is raised to the level of equating him with the revered Mahadev himself (Har, har,...
View ArticleIndia: Growing Importance of Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables (F/V) have been quite a luxury in many countries in Asia and elsewhere for centuries. When travelling from Lebanon to the border of Bengal, kitchen gardens, so widespread in...
View ArticleKashmir: Modi's Fantasies and Article 370
by Imran Ahmad Kichloo“The time has come for at least a debate to find out whether Article 370 has benefited the common man in Jammu and Kashmir or not,” Narendra Modi stated recently while addressing...
View ArticleMedia: News Medium and the Stereotypes
by Anil ChamadiaThe Hindu, a leading English daily newspaper, carried a report on December 20, 2013 about the suicide of Dr Khurshid Anwar, an Executive Director of an NGO. He had committed suicide on...
View ArticleMuslims and the Indian Election 2014
by Imtiaz Ahmad AnsariThe 16th Lok Sabha elections for the world's largest democracy, India, will be held in nine phases from April 7 to May 12, 2014. The total number of voters for this election is...
View ArticleThe Path of Revolution
‘Revolution' has been a very inspiring word for millions of people working for creating a better world. However, vested interests have often also misused this word. So it is important to try to define...
View ArticleDefence and Self-Reliance
[We have come across two articles related to defence and self-reliance in Business Standard of late. Since the subject is under intense discussion in recent times we are reproducing, with due...
View ArticleRSS-BJP, Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi
The RSS/BJP continue to act innocent on the Mahatma Gandhi assassination issue. Fresh attempts are being made by their leaders, on the eve of the elections, to ‘clarify' that the RSS was in no way...
View ArticleBare Facts
In terms of geographical spread and demographic reach, India has one national party, namely, the Indian National Congress, and one quasi-national party, namely, the Bharatiya Janata Party—quasi because...
View ArticleBJP's Dangerous Politics / We Must All Resist BJP's Two-Nation Theory
From N.C.'s WritingsBJP's Dangerous PoliticsOne of my earliest reporting experiences was the great Calcutta killing of 1946. Fierce communal passions were unleashed and thousands were done to death on...
View ArticleParties Ignore Human Rights
Dictatorships get a fillip when democracies falter. India committed this cardinal sin when it abstained from voting at the UN Human Rights Council. A resolution was sought to be passed to seek an...
View ArticleFace of the Danger
EDITORIALMore than a month ago it was written in these columns in the March 1, 2014 issue of this journal on the occasion of the twelfth anniversary of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.For all secular...
View ArticleFor a Broad United Secular Front to Resist Fascist Takeover of Indian State
The following is a message sent by the Mainstream editor to a seminar on Left unity organised by the Communist Party of Bharat in Kolkata on April 6, 2014.I wholeheatedly welcome the initiative you...
View ArticlePeoples' Agenda 2014
The following is the Peoples' Agenda 2014 prepared by a group of academics on behalf of the Indian Political Economy Association (IPEA). This document is a necessary intervention at a crucial time when...
View ArticleOne Group has Already Lost the Elections: How Leadership Fails the Communists
impressionsThe winners of this election are anybody's guess. But the losers are known: The Communists. That is a pity because space is lying wide open for an alternative to the conservative Congress of...
View ArticleFrom the Left Roots
PreambleThe two major Left parties, the CPI and CPI-M, speak of a Third Front that is both non-INC and non-BJP, and have sought to join hands with the AIADMK in a pre-poll alliance (since withdrawn as...
View ArticleOn Writing India's China War: Some Recollections
by Neville MaxwellFollowing the publication of Kuldip Nayar's “Neville Maxwell and Brooks' Report” in Mainstream (March 22, 2014), Maxwell wrote in an e-mail from Australia: “Sumit, I have read Kuldip...
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Gujarat : A Model of ‘Development'?
A notable feature of the 2014 elections seems to be, at least on the surface, that development, particularly the inter-State differences in levels of development (and the associated role of governance...
View ArticleWater and Dalit Women
women's worldby Nirupam HazraFor long, the discourse of women empower-ment and emancipation has generally regarded women as a homogenous, non-hierarchised group; irrespective of the obvious disparity...
View ArticleHonouring Ambedkar
From N.C.'s WritingsApril 14 this year marks the 123rd birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. On this occasion we are reproducing the following piece by N.C. to offer our sincere...
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