Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Egypt’s Brothers and New Middle East

  27 July 2012, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Prima facie, it would seem that a great unifying figure has finally appeared on the banks of the Nile whose shadow spreads across the entire Middle Eastern political landscape. That, at least, is the impression generated by the range of commendations from the international comm-unity that followed the election of Mohammed Morsi in the presidential election in Egypt. Ranging form Israel to Iran, the Middle Eastern countries hailed the outcome of the Egyptian election resulting in the victory (…)

• People’s Expectations from the Left

  27 July 2012

  by Nitya Gopal Basu
  India is in the grip ever-increasing political doldrums. Regional political parties with their narrow vision of regional interests are reaping dividends taking full advantage of the weakness of decision-making of the second UPA Government. Regional politics, coupled with the limitations of coalition politics, has become a stumbling block for carrying out many of the positive steps for economic growth and expanding the horizon of international friendship (like the (…)

• If the Basics are in Place, the Rest 
will Follow

  27 July 2012, by Uttam Sen

  Communications-2
  The author has gone through the grind of journalism from production and reporting to leader writing. The following is the second part of a two-part article which, according to him, is an endeavour to see the world through the prism of the average person like himself. The first appeared in Mainstream (July 14, 2012). As a wide range of public discourse informs us among the laity, unparalleled capital flow in the present period has created equivalent (or greater) social and (…)

• Indo-Russian Cooperation in Industrial Modernisation

  27 July 2012, by Mansoor Ali

  Mutual cooperation between Russia and India in the business sector and the participation of Russia in India’s modernisation programme will help benefit Indian business to enter the prospective Customs Union market. The market possesses high potential for industry (more than US $ 65 billion), energy (over 100 billion barrels of oil and about 450 billion cubic metres of gas) and agriculture (the volume of agricultural production being to the tune of US $ 12 billion) thus ensuring high (…)

• Criminal Heritage of Britain and 
Pre-trial Conviction under IPC

  27 July 2012, by K G Somasekharan Nair

  The instrument of criminal justice—the Indian Penal Code—was drafted by Lord Macaulay when he functioned Law Minister of India from 1834 to 1838. It is a tribute to his superb draftsmanship that the Indian Penal Code is one of the least amended statutes in India. —Nani A. Palkivala
  The basic concept of justice in the foreign-made Indian Penal Code, imposed revengefully by the bandit queen Victoria on the third anni-versary of the war independence 1857, is that all Indians are habitual (…)

• Union Ministers Embarrass UPA

  15 July 2012, by SC

  With the BJP bowing to former Karnataka CM and Lingayat strongman B.S. Yedurappa’s demand for a change of guard in the leadership of the State Government in Bengaluru, Vokkaliga leader D.V. Sadananda Gowda has tendered his resignation from the post of head of government and a new CM—Jagdish Shettar—has replaced him. This change once again shows the strength of Yeddyurappa while also exposing deep factional fissures within the party; it further makes a mockery of the BJP’s “crusade” against (…)

• In Search of an Alternative Political Party

  15 July 2012, by Bharat Dogra

  Kuldip Nayar has concluded his article ‘Where is the Vision?’ (Mainstream, June 30) with this paragarph: “The people’s dilemma is that both the national parties, the Congress and BJP, riven as they are with groupism and ambitions, do not qualify to lead the nation. How I wish there were some party, even though small, that had the vision to retrieve the country and take it forward!”
  No doubt many other people in the country have the same feeling, but the question is: why after all these (…)

• Mercy Petitions vis-a-vis Death Penalty

  15 July 2012, by Rajindar Sachar

  President Patil just before her retirement has been the subject of strong criticism allegedly for accepting over 35 mercy petitions and commu-ting death sentence to life imprisonment of these accused convicted of rape and murder of children—an action which causes justifiably disbelief and alarm. She is even said to have commuted the sentence of a person who died five years ago (showing a kind of sloth in dis-posing of such delicate matters).
  The President’s Office, being naturally piqued (…)

• Pakistan: Gilani’s Sacrifice and Loyalty

  15 July 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  The judiciary has played havoc with Pakistan. Often it has justified military coups in the country through the dictum of necessity and on a few occasions it has supported the democratic ethos. Every time the people have paid the price. This time it has not been different. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has been disqualified and he had no option but to resign to make place for a new Prime Minister. Yet the people have to bear the brunt. With no electricity, no water and no reprieve from (…)

• Of Gilani’s Exit and the Culture of Pakistan’s Political Instability

  15 July 2012

  by TAREAK A. RATHAR and ADFAR RASHID SHAH
  Pakistan has been struggling with political instability since its very birth. There have been serious and threatening problems in its political system regularly and these have had ramifications upon the very development of the state and its reputation before the international community. The sociological fallouts of the identity and legitimacy crisis of democracy in Pakistan—trust deficit among masses in successive governments, political leadership (…)