Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Inaccuracy of “Chest-beating”
Politics of Tamil Nadu

  31 October 2012

  by KUSAL PERERA
  This article reached us quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavailable reasons.
  In Tamil Nadu, the continuing spate of recent violent, rowdy protests targeting innocent Sri Lankan civilians visiting Tamil Nadu and India on purely private and religious tours, define how empty and extremist and therefore emotional and violent they can turn out to be, when picking on the Sri Lankan Tamil issues. The recent escalation of these violent anti-people mob (…)

• Why ‘Mango People’ Support Activists

  31 October 2012

  COMMUNICATION
  Despite all the witch-hunting and persecution of activists like Arvind Kejriwal, Anna Hazare and Swami Ramdev, crores of “mango people” like me would rally behind them, because the aam admi is suffocated by the swindling and loot of national wealth by the politician-bureaucrat-corporate mafia, trying to seize control of the Indian economy. This powerful trinity is threatening the future of millions of Indians and Indian democracy. Their activities could be termed as (…)

• Heightening Anti-Graft Movement

  24 October 2012, by SC

  After the exposure of Robert Vadra’s land deals, concrete charges against Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid have come to the fore.
  India Against Corruption (IAC) levelled serious allegations against Khurshid who was accused of having received Rs 71 lakhs from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2009-10 for the Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust run by his family (for helping disabled persons) on the basis of forged letters.
  Subsequently it was reported that a letter (…)

• RSS Affiliation No Guarantee of
 Good Values

  24 October 2012, by Badri Raina

  Anjali Damania, the anti-corruption volunteer, is the daughter of an RSS worker of long, and brought up to believe in the values of clean and patriotic conduct. Such are the facts she has revealed in her long sms sent to Shri Nitin Gadkari, the RSS scion, after, as per her averment, her meeting with him on August 14. Shri Gadkari has since denied meeting Anjali, and issued her a legal notice.
  In that sms message, and subsequently in a number of television interactions, she has expressed (…)

• Protecting Tribal Land and Livelihood: Tribal Minister’s New Initiative

  24 October 2012, by Bharat Dogra

  Recently the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs and Panchayat Raj, V. Kishore Chandra Deo, created a stir by asking the Andhra Pradesh Government to cancel the lease of seven bauxite mines in Visakhapatnam to protect the land rights and livelihood of tribals living in the Scheduled areas. However, much more important than the case of these seven mines taken by itself is the wider initiative of the Minister to implement strong constitutional provisions for the protection of tribals’ rights (…)

• Political Culture of Engaging with the State

  24 October 2012, by Suranjita Ray

  India has a rich history of political culture to engage with the state. The transition from a colonial hegemonic state to a post-colonial, non-hegemonic, democratic and decentralised state that claims to be increasingly citizen-friendly, needs to be seen in relation to the different contextual trajectories of such engagements with the state. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in understanding the complex and dynamic nature of state-citizen relationship in the context of the (…)

• Russia Bridges Middle Eastern Divides

  24 October 2012, by M K Bhadrakumar

  A multi-billion dollar arms deal with Iraq, a summit meeting with Turkey, a fence-mending exercise with Saudi Arabia, a debut with Egypt’s Sphinx-like Muslim Brothers—all this is slated to happen within the period of a turbulent month in the Middle East. And all this is to happen when the United States’ “return” to the region after the hurly-burly of the November election still seems a distant dream. Simply put, Russia is suddenly all over the Middle East.
  Moscow announced on October 9 (…)

• What Invasion has Shown Up • Need for World Publicity

  24 October 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  October 20 this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Chinese aggression on India. On this occasion we are carrying N.C.’s ‘New Delhi Skyline’ published in Mainstream seven days after the invasion.
  A fresh appraisal of values has overtaken New Delhi with the shock of the massive Chinese aggression on the far-flung frontier from Ladakh to NEFA.
  In the course of a single week, the nation faced the dangerous implications of a militarily powerful neighbour (…)

• Looking Back on History: Fifty Years after the Chinese Aggression

  24 October 2012, by Barun Das Gupta

  On October 20, 1962, the Chinese Army launched a full-fledged aggression—there is no point in trying to dilute that hard fact by saying it was a mere ‘border war’—against India. This year, 2012, marks half-a-century of that event when India was humiliated and defeated decisively. Pandit Nehru and his close associate of those days, Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon, were squarely blamed for his alleged gullibility and trustfulness on two counts. One, his inability to read the Chinese (…)

• The 1962 War

  24 October 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  The India-China war in 1962 is 50 years old. Yet the question that remains unanswered is whether it was a military debacle or a political hara-kiri. It is true that our defence forces were vanquished and got a thorough beating. But are they to blame or the political masters who pushed them into the war when there were no preparations?
  Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru cannot escape the blame because he is the one who ordered the Army to throw out the Chinese who had occupied our territory (…)