Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Questions About New Government’s Policies

  14 June 2014, by Bharat Dogra

  As India’s new government speeds up the implementation of a selective agenda, several questions need to be raised about the direction and content of new policy decisions and likely decisions. Let’s pick up the newspapers of just one day (May 30) to see the direction of the new government’s decisions. (All news reports cited below are from Delhi editions of newspapers dated May 30.)
  ‘Sushma, Kerry discuss $500 billion target for trade,’ says a headline in The Hindu. This report said: (…)

• More Thefts of Photos and Text

  14 June 2014, by Mukul Dube

  At http://www.thehoot.org/web/Stealingphotos/6372-1-1-17-true.html I wrote about how Inquilab and Madhyamam used, without my knowledge and without crediting me, photographs taken by me. Other thieves have crawled out of the wood-work in the eighteen months since then.
  In April 2013 I found that HardNews had used a photo I had taken of an ANHAD function, without my knowledge or permission and without naming me on the page. The page where the photo appeared—http://www.hard (…)

• Need for Vigilance

  9 June 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  With the elections to the 16th Lok Sabha having pronounced a decisive verdict, the Lower House of Parliament presents a scene completely different from the one witnessed in the previous Lok Sabha. As the first session of this Lok Sabha is formally inaugurated after a day’s adjournment on June 4 due to sitting member and Union Minister for Rural Develoment Gopinath Munde’s tragic demise in a road accident in the Capital, this becomes starkly visible. While the Congress has been (…)

• South Asia on Cusp of Strategic Realignment?

  9 June 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The South Asian region seems ripe for a strategic realignment, although no one cares to talk about it openly. The Russian report to the effect that Moscow is ending its self-imposed arms embargo on Pakistan amounts to a signal that the tectonic plates of the geopolitics of the region are shifting.
  If the report is true—RIA Novosti is an official news agency—this is further confirmation that India and Russia are drifting apart. From a stance of benign neglect of the relationship in the (…)

• On Thirtieth Anniversary of ‘Operation Bluestar’: Some Thoughts on the Aftermath of the Operation

  9 June 2014, by Nandita Haksar

  A few days after ‘Operation Bluestar’ I was in the Amritsar home of Sardar Gursharan Singh, the legendary theatre personality. He had shown tremendous courage by publicly criticising the Punjab militants and even enacted plays in Bhindranwale’s village raising questions about the Khalistani movement.
  We were in the midst of a discussion when a very agitated young Sardar walked in. He said he had heard a Supreme Court lawyer was visiting and he wanted to know whether the lawyer could help (…)

• Regional Disparities, Smaller States and Statehood for Telangana

  9 June 2014

  http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1213.html

• Statehood for Telangana: The Current Stalemate

  9 June 2014

• Emergence of Telengana as the 29th State

  9 June 2014

  http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article4758.html

• Republic Resilient

  9 June 2014, by Badri Raina

  Much as this writer and many millions the world-over wish this would happen, it appears unlikely for now that Capitalism’s slayer is brewing within its own productive womb. That “inevitability” seems not so inevitable. The historical transformation in productive practices from factory to call centre seems to yield crony aspirants to its fruits rather than ideological antagonists fated to sound its knell. When economies crash, as in America and Europe, the culprits—banks, financial (…)

• The Strength of Indian Democracy

  9 June 2014, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  The election of Shri Narendrabhai Modi to the post of the Prime Minister of India and that of Smt Mayawati as the Chief Minister of UP earlier reinforce my faith in the inner strength of our democracy. Almost every democratic country does have its “blue-blooded” families who always aspire for the high elected posts through their wealth and family and business social network. Bushes and Kennedys of the US could be one illustration. Britain has its “ruling” families in a more camouflaged way (…)