Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• India-Pakistan, Chhattisgarh, ‘God Particle’

  10 July 2012, by SC

  The Foreign Secretary-level India-Pakistan talks have ended in the Capital without any perceptible progress on the terror front. At the joint press conference Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai succinctly underlined the Indian position by asserting that Pakistan “bringing to justice” the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack would be the “biggest confidence-building measure” for the two neighbouring states; but his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani, remained in the denial mode (…)

• Two Parts of PM’s "Plural India"

  10 July 2012

  by NARENDRA SHARMA
  The work-report of the UPA-II Government for the year 2011-12, recently released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has been “part of the continuing process of”, what he called, “building a modern, secular and plural India”.
  Not much notice has been taken by observers of this new concept of building “plural” India outlined, without expanding it, by the Prime Minister. This, however, does need special attention since he implied that he has been carrying on this process (…)

• Higgs Boson: The Indian Legacy

  10 July 2012

  by KUSHAN MITRA
  The Higgs Boson, described as the The God Particle in a 1993 book by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Leon Lederman, has had its existence proved. Well, it has had its existence proved to an accuracy of 99,9999 per cent at CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research. With it, one of mankind’s most expensive endeavours has been completed as researchers across the world have spent billions of dollars searching for this elusive subatomic particle that completes the ‘Standard (…)

• Much Ado about Rashtrapati

  10 July 2012

  by HARGOPAL SINGH
  The President of India (Rashtrapati) is not vested with any powers worth the name—executive, administrative or other—under the Constitution of India. Articles 53, 74, 75 and 79, if read in conjunction with one another, make this abundantly clear. The Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act 1978 leaves no scope for any misunderstanding about the actual position of the President. It reads: “There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid (…)

• Presidential Election: An Opportunity Lost

  10 July 2012

  by MASTRAM KAPOOR
  The presidential election 2012 provided a golden opportunity for the unity of progressive forces as against the forces of status quo and crony capitalism in the guise of neo-developmentalism that by plundering the earth enrich the few and push the masses to gradual extinction. The opportunity was, however, lost not by circumstances but by utter poverty of imagination and will on the part of the progressives consisting of Communists and Socialists as well as complete loss (…)

• Rashtrapati Election — CPI Stand

  10 July 2012

  by S. SUDHAKAR REDDY
  The election of the Rashtrapati, scheduled for July 19, has sparked intense debate in the media as well as in political circles as differences in major political groupings have come to the surface and there are speculations on possible political realignments. But most of the speculations seem to be out of context because any realignment has to materialise on the basis of concrete socio-economic policies.
  The National Executive of the Communist Party of India, (…)

• Towards Structuring History

  10 July 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Compared to many of the Western countries, India has a poor harvest of memoirs and reminiscences by those who had held important positions in the wielding of the machinery of power. Many British statesmen, generals and administrators left behind copious documents from memory which provide the raw material of history. In contrast, we seem to have developed an unhistorical tradition, neglecting this important aspect of recording history.
  It is in this context that one has to evaluate the (…)

• Prospect from Simla

  10 July 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS On July 2 this year was observed the fortieth anniversary of the Simla Agreement arrived at the summit meeting between PM Indira Gandhi and her Pakistani counterpart, Z.A. Bhutto. On this occasion we are reproducing the ‘Editor’s Notebook’ which N.C. wrote immediately after the Simla Accord in July 1972 and the piece he wrote for The Tribune in 1995 on the controversy over what was agreed upon at Simla—it was subsequently published in Mainstream as well by arrangement (…)

• B.C. Roy: Architect of Modern Bengal

  10 July 2012, by Barun Das Gupta

  The birth and death anniversaries of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, acclaimed on all hands as the architect of modern Bengal, fall on the same day—July 1. This year it was his 130th birth and 50th death anniversaries on that day. He took charge of West Bengal at a critical juncture. He was sworn in as the Chief Minister on January 23, 1948. The very next month, in February, the Communist Party of India held its Second Party Congress in Calcutta. The party Congress threw out the then General (…)

• Hindutva versus Regionalism

  10 July 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have tryst with doom. In the wake of scams and scandals in the Congress-run government, the BJP was gaining ground. Its performance in Parliament was comparatively better and its younger leadership assertive and more meaningful. But once again the old RSS men, who have been riding the party, have brought it back to square one.
  First, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi joined issue with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the concept of secularism; and (…)