Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Frustrate the Diabolic Game

  20 June 2012, by SC

  Finally the Congress-led UPA II—the ruling coalition at the Centre—has taken the decision: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is going to be its candidate for the Presidential poll. This sets to rest all speculation about the UPA’s nominee for the office of the head of state.
  Much has been already written, broadcast and telecast about various aspects of the presidential poll. What has not been brought into focus, in all probability deliberately, is the role of the corporate sector and big (…)

• Pranab as Numero Uno

  20 June 2012, by Barun Das Gupta

  For Pranab Mukherjee, who has been in politics for about half-a-century, the Number One position has always been the proverbial ‘jam tomorrow’. At last, he is going to be the Numero Uno—the first citizen of the country. What is more, the UPA has sponsored him, the Left is about to make a formal announcement of its support to him, the NDA, at the time of writing, is giving broad hints that it will not oppose him.
  The BSP has made known its support for him. And topping the list of Pranab’s (…)

• The Siachen Imbroglio

  20 June 2012, by S G Vombatkere

  Immediacy for Peace
  The title and contents of A.G. Noorani’s article “Settle the Siachen dispute now“ [Ref. 1] strongly suggests peace-by-demilitarisation of Siachen on an immediate basis. His quest for peace is unexceptionable. Every Army jawan and most officers would not dispute this aim for, after all, they bear the brunt of military operations on Siachen. The huge amounts of money spent on these military operations are amounts that would be better spent on roti-kapda-makan for 80 per (…)

• J&K Interlocutors Uphold Status Quo

  20 June 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  It is strange that those who claim to be radicals on Kashmir are found wanting when put at a position to propose a solution. The government-appointed interlocutors, Dilip Padgaonkar, Radha Kumar and M.M. Ansari, are said to be forward-looking persons. But their suggestions have turned out to be pro-status quo. In comparison, the ruling National Conference, despite its over-dependence on New Delhi, has been pursuing a more progressive path and demanding the pre-1952 status when the Centre (…)

• Jana Satyagraha takes Message of Land Reforms All Over the Country

  20 June 2012, by Bharat Dogra

  At a time when land reforms are being increasingly forgotten and neglected by the Union Government as well as most State governments, a Gandhian campaign called ‘Jana Satyagraha’ has been trying ceaselessly to take the message of revising and strengthening land reforms to all parts of the country.
  At the centre of this campaign is an organi-sation ‘Ekta Parishad’, led by senior Gandhian activist, P.V. Rajagopal. However, as the cam-paign has progressed, nearly one thousand organisations in (…)

• The Syrian Intrigue

  20 June 2012, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Unspoken, unnoticed, India’s Syria policy recently took a circle to return to where it all began at the ‘Friends of Syria’ meet in Tunis on February 24. The visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was projected by our spin-doctors as a ‘snub’ to Washington, but in reality, South Block obediently follows the footsteps of the United States and Gulf Cooperation Council states in West Asia.
  The ‘Friends of Syria’ was a coalition of Western countries and Saudi Arabia and Qatar that (…)

• Palestine Under Occupation: Some Reflections

  20 June 2012

  by BANSIDHAR PRADHAN
  “The occupation will not remove us from our land. We will stay in our land as the roots of the olive tree,” reads a poster inside the tiny Media Centre of Bil’in, a small village in the Ramallah Governorate. Of late, Bil’in has become a symbol of non-violent resistance against the Apartheid Wall, which Israel has built, and is still continuing to build, on Palestinian land. The valiant struggle of the villagers has attracted international attention ever since they (…)

• CPM’s Kozhikode Congress cuts the Last Thread Connecting it to Tantriki Sruti’s Tradition

  20 June 2012, by Sharad Patil

  While terminating its 20th Congress at Kozhikode in Kerala the Marxist Communist Party (CPM) excluded V.S. Achuthanandan from its PB, the only member of the first generation of Kerala Communists headed by E.M.S. Namboodiripad. VS was the CM upto the recent Assembly elections. The State Secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, had persuaded the PB when it met at Thiruvananthapuram not to field VS in the Assembly elections. But the people demonstrated and forced the PB to field VS in the Assembly (…)

• Remembering Victor Kiernan

  20 June 2012, by Randhir Singh

  As I complete 90 years of my residence on this earth and ponder over my long career as a teacher, I am struck by the happy accidents that marked its progress alongwith the missed opportunities to learn a little more and become a better teacher. Of such accidents three stand out in my memory.
  The happiest accident occurred at the very beginning of my career as a teacher in Delhi University. A teacher in Delhi College, I got the opportunity to teach ‘political thought’ to the post-graduate (…)

• Counter-Terrorism: Politicians play Games instead of Calling in Professionals

  20 June 2012, by T J S George

  Barack Obama faces bigger terrorist threats to his life than Manmohan Singh. But we don’t see security guards standing behind Obama when he delivers a public speech. When Manmohan Singh or Sonia Gandhi speaks, earphoned and presumably armed guards stand right behind them. Narendra Modi or Mayawati (as CM) would not move about without those menacing, finger-on-the trigger machinegun soldiers encircling them—a spectacle unseen in any other democracy in the world.
  It is true that no Asian (…)