Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• US’ Strategic ‘Pivot’ To Asia-Pacific — Some Implications

  12 August 2013, by Ninan Koshy

  What are the Implications of the Imperial Pivot?
  There is a new definition of the Asia-Pacific reflecting the expanded stretch of the imperial territory: The Strategic Guidance document maps the region as “the arc extending from Western Pacific and East Asia into the Indian Ocean region and South Asia”. In her Foreign Policy article “America’s Pacific Century” (November 2011), the then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, defined the Asia-Pacific as “stretching from the Indian subcontinent (…)

• Our Experiments with Truth: Political Parties Band Together to Keep Themselves Out of RTI

  12 August 2013, by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey

  by Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey
  Engulfed in scams and in the midst of a growing credibility deficit of the political establishment, the government’s move to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep political parties out of its ambit is most unfortunate and injudicious. This step will deepen the chasm between the political system and the people. It is especially unwise at this juncture as it’s another setback to expectations of responsible and fair governance.
  The dilemma lies in the (…)

• R. Krishnamurti: The UNCTAD Man

  12 August 2013, by Muchkund Dubey

  TRIBUTE
  Rangaswami Krishnamurti, a renowned international civil servant who had his longest innings of service with the UNCTAD, expired at the age of 95 on July 18, 2013, in Columbus (USA). He leaves behind his wife (Meenakshi), daughter (Indira), two sons (Raju and Mahesh) and six grandchildren. Two of his grand-daughters work in the UN system, representing a continuation of Krishna’s abiding faith in multilateralism under the United Nations as the harbinger of world peace and prosperity. (…)

• Distance Education Under Threat

  12 August 2013

  by Sadhan Mukherjee
  Our national policy is to help educate India’s youth deprived of higher education but it begs to be fulfilled. The Distance Education (DE) mode is a way out, but it is currently under threat. Why?
  It cannot be overstated that shortsighted bureaucrats and vested interests are thwarting the DE efforts. There is hardly any public outcry as many people are still not aware of this form of education. If at all, they perceive it akin to a correspondence course (CC). The (…)

• Panchayat Polls: The Verdict of Rural Bengal

  12 August 2013, by Barun Das Gupta

  As expected, rural Bengal has given a massive mandate for the Trinamul Congress in the panchayat polls. The ruling party has captured 13 of the 17 Zilla Parishads, the Left Front one (Jalpaiguri) and the Congress one (Murshidabad). In two districts, Maldah and North Dinajpur, no party has won a clear majority. Compare this with the results of the previous (2008) polls and the sea-change will leap to your eyes: Left Front 13 Zilla Parishads, Congress two and TMC two. The table has now been (…)

• Negotiating Marginality: The Bangla-speakers of Assam

  12 August 2013

  by Nabanipa Bhattacharjee
  With the population close to 30 per cent as per the 2001 census and the provisional total of the 2011 census, the Bangla-speakers are the largest linguistic minority in Assam. A subs-tantial number of that, both Hindu and Muslim, is concentrated in southern Assam which is also popularly known by the epithet Barak Valley to represent the three districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. In addition to the Bangla-speakers, the Barak Valley is also home to other (…)

• Caste and Social Transformation in Indian Democratic Society: A Transitional Phase

  12 August 2013, by Indrajeet Singh

  ‘We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognises liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. [. . .] On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. [...] We must remove this (…)

• Professor Malyarov As I Knew Him

  12 August 2013, by Arun Mohanty

  TRIBUTE
  Professor Oleg Vasilyevich Malyarov, the eminent Indologist and a multifaceted personality, unexpectedly passed away on the very day of Easter in his village house in Russia’s Novgorod district. In his demise while India lost a sincere friend, Russia lost a great patriot, a leading Marxist scholar, a brilliant economist and a valiant fighter for social justice. Malyarov, born in Vladivostok, had received his higher education from the prestigious Economics Faculty of the world (…)

• Keeping Out Dons

  12 August 2013

  by Arun Srivastava
  With political parties unwilling to clean their stables, the Supreme Court has stepped in to rid the much-maligned system, make life tough for the criminals in politics by ruling that those convicted in a criminal case will stand disqualified as a lawmaker from the date of conviction.
  Since 2002 the Apex Court has been expressing its concern and keen desire to end the menace of criminalisation of politics. But nothing substantial could be achieved so far. The political (…)

• Muslim Terrorism Against The Endless Crusades

  12 August 2013, by K G Somasekharan Nair

  Since the unknown past, Judaism has had four traditional castes, namely, Pharisees, Sadduces, Essenes and Zealots. Each claimed its purity, sanctity and supremacy over the other. Therefore, one among them did not recognise the other and arrived at a determination of intolerance: “one caste, one religion and one god for men”. In the Dark Age, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and Pope Gregory derived a homily from their parental religion, Judaism: “one religion, one Church and one empire for the (…)