Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Some Thoughts on the Syed Kazmi Case

  31 October 2012, by Mukul Dube

  Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi, an Indian journalist who lived in Delhi and had worked with the Iranian news agency IRNA since 1988, was picked up by the police in the forenoon of March 6, 2012. The time of arrest was, however, recorded as 8.30 pm. Functionaries of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, in whose custody he had been, went to his house that night and seized his computer, car and other objects and documents; and his son Shauzab claimed that he was made to sign the arrest memo at 2.30 (…)

• The Jingle of Coins

  31 October 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  MEDIA
  What the New Yorker, an American fortnightly, has told about the Jain brothers, Samir and Vineet, presiding over The Times of India group, has been known to most. The contribution by the New Yorker is that it has nailed the doubts and confirmed that the biggest media moguls of the country believe that there is nothing sacrosanct about news columns and can be sold for a price because a newspaper for them is a commodity, like talcum powder or tooth paste.
  A reader may be shocked to (…)

• Chinese Attack and CPI

  31 October 2012, by Mohit Sen

  On the occasion of the Chinese aggression’s fiftieth auniversary this month we are continuing to publish and reproduce relevant articles on the subject.
  The Chinese pinpricks on the border continued all the time. The Indian posts were also moved to different positions in the north-west of our country whils the status quo was more or less maintained in the north-east. Tension and irritation remained but there was no expectation of any major flare up. V.K. Krishna Menon met the Chinese (…)

• India-China: Reflections on 1962

  31 October 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  This week, thirty years ago, the Chinese Army had mounted a full-scale military attack along the entire length of our northern border. For three years previous to that there were occasional clashes, accompanied by angry polemics and tension over border claims.
  What happened on October 20 was entirely different in character. It was a massive aggression into territories beyond the lines claimed as the border by the Chinese themselves. In other words, what the Chinese (…)

• 1962: Twenty Years Later

  31 October 2012

  The following article, by an acknowledged authority on China’s international relations, appeared on the twentieth anniversary of the Sino-India border conflict in Mainstream (October 30, 1982). Dr Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea, who was born on April 18, 1930, passed away in New Delhi on December 13, 2009.

• 1962 War: Leaders Failed India

  31 October 2012, by Inder Malhotra

  Since the traumatic story of the brief but brutal border war with China is too well known, having been written in minutest details, and indeed is being retold extensively in the run-up to its 50th anniversary, there is no point repeating it here. Suffice it to say that whoever lived through it, as I did, hasn’t forgotten it half a century later. As Jawaharlal Nehru’s official biographer S. Gopal said succinctly: “Things went so wrong that had they not happened it would have been difficult to (…)

• New Divisions on China Border

  31 October 2012, by Harish Chandola

  Two new Army armoured divisions will be deployed, one in the northern and another in the middle sector of the India-Tibet border, shortly, according to a recent Defence Ministry announcement. The middle sector lies around the town of Joshimath, where I live. For some time the Army has been looking for land to house the division. At the moment there is just an infantry brigade here. The Ministry did not disclose why it needed the two armoured divisions on this border. Is it because of (…)

• We honour Gandhi only with Tokenism, but his Cult Status keeps Growing

  31 October 2012, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  It has become quite easy to celebrate Gandhi Jayanti. Order nationwide newspaper advertise-ments, sport a white cap for a photo op or two, then go home and enjoy the holiday. When ritual replaces duty, life becomes simple. It becomes simpler still when celebrating Rajiv Gandhi is more rewarding than remembering the real Gandhi. Notice the way advertisements increase in size, number and effusiveness when the dynastic hero’s birthday falls due.
  The contrast is natural. Rajiv (…)

• Land of Parallel Walkers

  31 October 2012, by Chandra Mohan Bhandari

  Parallel Walkers
  Here’s a unique land with its unparalleled traditions: its inhabitants are great talkers, everybody talks, and everybody listens only to his (her) own voice, as there is no other choice; tongues are internally linked to their own auditory glands.
  They are great walkers too, walking together almost in parallel, and make sure that their paths do not meet, as with parallel lines. Parallel walkers and parallel self-talkers, culminating in a unique cultural blend; long (…)

• Reply to Rajimwale’s Book Review

  31 October 2012

  COMMUNICATION
  I would like to thank the editor of Mainstream for allowing me to respond to Mr Anil Rajim-wale’s review (“A Pathetic Defence of Stalinist Repressions”) of my book in the issue of August 4, 2012.
  The full title and publication information of my book is:
  Furr, Grover, Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence That Every “Revelation” of Stalin’s (and Beria’s) Crimes in Nikita Khrushchev’s Infamous “Secret Speech” to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on (…)