Citizens Speak Out Against Jingoism
Statement on Indo-Pak RelationsWe are profoundly disturbed by the thought-less articulation of jingoist sentiments by high level representatives of the Government, prominent spokespersons of the ruling...
View ArticleBandung Spirit and the New Indian Regime
That India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, decided not to attend the sixtieth anniversary celebrations of the Bandung Conference of Asian and African countries on April 21-24 and instead sent Ms...
View ArticleManipur-Myanmar Attacks: Why the Violence is Unlikely to Stop
by Bharat BhushanContrary to popular expectation, the attacks on Indian security forces in Manipur and Nagaland are unlikely to come down.The cross-border Indian military action in Myanmar may indeed...
View ArticleArmy's hit against Rebels was masterly. But some things a Government must...
IMPRESSIONSThe wise keep their own counsel, the foolish boast. Did we forget this timeless principle in our very moment of triumph? India's commando operation against insurgent groups in Myanmar was...
View ArticleNobel Prize
However mighty the quake may be,I survive smartly in a Delhi high-rise,But such is the bias of the Committee,I do not get the Nobel Prize.I drive in a mid-day blistering sunThrough desert sands where...
View ArticleWas Modi's Visit Productive?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka was mistimed. It looked as if he had gone to shore up the sagging image of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He has only heightened the anti-India feeling...
View ArticleFood Safety Management—Conflict and Control
States have a primary duty to raise the standard of nutrition levels in the public, improve standards of living and prohibit that which is harmful to health. Food is one of life's basic necessities....
View ArticleReport on One Year of the Modi Regime
DOCUMENTExecutive summaryThe following is the Executive Summary of the Report on One year of the Modi Regime, edited by John Dayal and Shabnam Hashmi. The report was released by Harsh Mander, John...
View ArticleLeft Perspective, CPI-M and a Corrigendum
The following is the letter from the CPI-M General Secretary to the Mainstream editor (June 15, 2015):Dear Mr Sumit Chakravartty,As the Editor of Mainstream Weekly, you had published an Editorial “Left...
View Article‘Modigate', BJP, Advani
EDITORIALCorruption has now raised its ugly head in the present ruling party as details of the close connections of that celebrated fugitive evading questioning by the Enforcement Directorate, Lalit...
View ArticleShillong: A Tale of Blue Love
by Nabanipa BhattacharjeeThousands of people forced their way into the Dimapur Central Jail—Dimapur is a fairly large, commercial town in Nagaland—on March 5, 2015 to get hold of one Syed Sarifuddin...
View ArticlePraful Bidwai Is No More
As we go to press, we have received the sad news that independent Left activist-intellectual and noted journalist Praful Bidwai, 66, has suddenly passed away on June 23 in Amsterdam where he had gone...
View ArticleNikhilda, the True Intellectual
by Jaya JaitlyWhen a good person is no longer in our midst the feelings they leave with, and the aura of their personality remains like a soft breeze in one's life. There are many ways in which people...
View ArticleNikhil Chakravartty, Our Contemporary
by Nirupam SenThis month is Nikhi Chakravartty's death anniversary. I have known very few journalists (perhaps my personal, idiosyncratic application of Lenin's dictum: “Better fewer, but better”)....
View ArticleNikhil Babu Widened My Mental Horizon
It was in late 1959 that I met N.C. (Nikhil Chakravartty). I was sent by Comrade P. C. Joshi to deliver some document to him. At that time he had just started IPA (India Press Agency) and used to sit...
View ArticleNikhilda! You Never Die!
June 25, 1975: 6 am: The telephone rings and there is the voice of a dear senior journalist friend—something that is not unusual as he often used to surprise me with some important information before...
View ArticleMemories of Nikhilda during the Emergency
It was in the wee hours of Jun 26, 1975 — around 4.30. I was sleeping soundly when the telephone by my bedside started ringing. [I was then in Gauhati (spelt Guwahati now) working as Patriot's Special...
View ArticleIntolerance through the Years: 1934 to 1975 to 2015
Day against Intolerance : June 25, 2015The 25th and 26th of June mark not only the declaration of the internal Emergency at the behest of the Indira Gandhi regime in 1975. June 25 is also the day in...
View ArticleTagore for Today / An Eye-witness Account / Does it Matter?
The Editor's Notebook in Mainstream (June 28, 1975) after the promulgation of Emergency and the imposition of press censorship appeared as follows:Tagore for TodaySomewhere in the excitement of...
View ArticleEmergency: What it meant
Not a leaf stirs in my kingdom without my leave. See how quiet my people sit.—Atahuallpa the IncaTo those whose only preoccupation in life is to survive, June 26, 1975 was like any other day in...
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