Mainstream Weekly

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• After Iran Deal and Modi-Sharif Talks

  20 July 2015, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Two major events have taken place on the global plane.
  On July 14 Iran and a group of six nations (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) clinched a final, historic deal on Iran’s nuclear activities. In turn, the deal will end Iran’s international isolation. It is a remarkable breakthrough in world affairs and the global media acknowledged the pivotal role played by US President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in securing this momentous (…)

• Chinese Pundits tell Fairy Tales

  20 July 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Do not be surprised if after reading former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran’s column in the Business Standard newspaper, entitled “The Beijing paradox”, on a Track II in the Chinese capital, the Chinese think-tanker bears striking resemblance to his Indian counterpart, trading in fantasies and passing them off as strategy.
  Saran summed up some hypotheses that lie behind China’s global strategy. One, China assumes that the emergent world order will be “bipolar” and headed by it and the United (…)

• July 16, 2015 marks Aruna Asaf Ali’s 106th birth anniversary

  20 July 2015

  Born as Aruna Ganguly in Barisal (now Bangladesh) on July 16, 1909, she emerged as one of the most striking freedom fighters especially in the last stage of our battle for emancipation from foreign yoke. Her dedication to the cause of liberation of the toiling millions remained undiminshed till the very end and she tirelessly worked in various capacities to realise the dream of an exploitation-free, new and radiant India she and her colleagues in the national movement had before them when (…)

• Looking back on August 1942

  20 July 2015, by SC

  How do you reflect on those unforgettable days of August 1942 after fifty years?
  Aruna Asaf Ali: Gandhiji’s ‘Do or Die’ message and his statement that every person is his own leader thrilled the masses and some of us. A few of us decided that going to jail was no way of serving the national cause. So we thought we’ll stay out of jail and lead the masses in the ‘Do or Die’ battle.
  That’s how we then felt. We did not kill people for the sake of killing but we decided that we would upset (…)

• Aruna Asaf Ali: A Tribute

  20 July 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Generations spanning over centuries have been told that the French Revolution devoured its own children. In a sense, this could be said also of the Russian Revolution in which many of its heroes had themselves to face the firing squad.
  There is however the other side, the heroic aspect of every revolution as it throws up leaders, and these in turn try to carry forward the revolution itself. Aruna Asaf Ali was one of these beautiful children reared by the Indian (…)

• I Salute You

  20 July 2015, by Som Benegal

  One more link with the past has gone,
  One more patriot gone to rest forever,
  United with history in the journal of her life.
  O, Aruna Asaf Ali, I salute you
  For your tireless wanderings
  Through the maze of revolution,
  But never faltering even though
  Your comrades locked you out at journey’s end.
  Som Benegal
  July 31, 1996 (Mainstream, August 10, 1996)

• Letter to Friends and Relatives from Tihar Jail-3

  20 July 2015, by Kobad Ghandy

  The following letter reached us late. We are thus belatedly publishing it for the benefit of our readersin general and Kobad Ghandy’s friends and relatives in particular.
  This is to thank you all ever so much for the support you rendered, in so many ways, against the harassment I have been facing since the past nine months due to routine three-four monthly jail transfers.
  This method of routine jail transfers is a notorious weapon of harassment (earlier used as a form of punishment), (…)

• Punjab: Paradox of Outward Prosperity and Deepening Problems

  20 July 2015

  by Bharat Dogra, Jagmohan Singh and Reena Mehta
  There has been a growing awareness in recent years that rise in the GDP need not necessarily be associated with increasing real welfare. This realisation led to efforts to prepare other indi-cators of welfare such as the Human Develop-ment Index (HDI) incorporating health, education and other important features in addition to income. However, even such improvements may not be adequate as multidimensional distress conditions may deteriorate (…)

• MNCs Mar India (ns)

  20 July 2015

  by A.V.V.S.K. Rao
  “Two things are infinite:The Universe and human stupidity andI’m not sure about the Universe.”—Albert Einstein(1879-1955)
  I
  When India attained independence in 1947 the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wanted to make the country wealthier by encouraging development of modern heavy industries. He had strong support from elite groups in the Indian National Congress and some leading industrialists coming from feudal background. The new political elite brought to (…)

• A Different Stroke: A Greenhorn in India’s Internal Emergency Administration (1975-77)

  20 July 2015, by A K Biswas

  The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie dispatched 150 of us—all 1973 batch IAS officers—to different directions all over the country to report to the respective State governments for duties. This brought an end to a two-year institutional and field training. The field training involved a fortnight of Army attachment starting December 27, 1973 under the tent in a sector where the temperature dipped to subzero in Jammu. From Mussoorie all of us proceeded (…)