Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Best Options for the Country and Congress

  8 June 2012, by Badri Raina

  This is the season for speculation, some serious-minded, some naughty. Which is to be expected.
  The thoughts offered here are meant to be strictly in the first category.
  To put the matter plainly, it is this writer’s considered view that whereas Pranab Mukerjee may richly deserve to be elevated to the grand office of President of the Republic, such a course would entail for the Congress party and for the country a fine opportunity wasted.
  The slot where the country needs him and where (…)

• Murder of Lokpal Bill in Parliament

  8 June 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  Corruption in South Asian countries has ceased to be news and people have begun living with it as if it is a normal practice. Not that they do not resent it but seem to feel that when the topmost leaders are part of it, they know there is probably no remedy.
  India has been astir because one scam after another has tumbled out of the government’s cupboard. The democratic system and relatively free media in the country have instilled confidence among neighbouring nations that once the (…)

• Whither Indian Federalism? Leaders Versus Public Perception

  8 June 2012, by S K Jain

  The recent controversy around the NCTC (National Counter-Terrorism Centre) as being violative of the federal structure of our Consti-tution has sparked a debate on Indian federalism or popularly called Centre-State relations in India. Due to vigorous protests by the non-Congress-ruled States on the unilateral decision by the Centre to establish the NCTC, the Centre was forced to keep the decision on hold and call a meeting of Chief Ministers to discuss the concern of the States. It was a (…)

• Pensions for All Elderly People: An Issue that Can Unite the Nation

  8 June 2012, by Bharat Dogra

  When was the last time in our memory political parties buried their differences and worked together on an issue of great importance for the people of India? Controversies have been getting murkier, and we seem to have forgotten how political parties can also work with creative co-operation to give the people badly needed relief and hope for the future.
  Now the demand of pensions for all elderly people offers a wonderful opportunity, a long-awaited opportunity, when various political (…)

• Shadow of the Al-Qaeda on Syria: Damascus Needs to be Understood Better

  8 June 2012

  by Kallol Bhattacherjee
  The tomb of Saladin outside the grand Umayyad mosque of Damascus is a constant reminder of the past conflicts that shaped the world, like the Crusade, arrival of the Ottoman Caliphate and the colonial era of the 18th to 20th century. Syrians still remember Henry Gourad, the French military officer who strode to the tomb of Saladin, after defeating a colonial insurrection against French rule following World War I, to declare triumphantly: “Arise Saladin, we have (…)

• India Dumps Iran, Squeezes Obama

  8 June 2012, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The cloud cover of sophistry that has been characteristic of India’s Iran policy in recent years lifted on May 15 when the government admitted in Parliament that it had taken a policy decision to reduce oil imports from Iran.
  The frank admission came on a day when an emissary from Washington, Carlos Pascual, the special envoy on energy matters in the United States State Department, arrived with the proclaimed intention of weaning New Delhi away from Tehran’s fuel.
  The Barack Obama (…)

• Some Aspects of the Black Economy: Inputs for Policy Debates

  8 June 2012, by Kamal Nayan Kabra

  It is paradoxical that despite so much ferment on the question of black economy, cronyism and corruption, some critical considerations which must be taken into account in the debates over the policy alternatives for curbing the black economy rarely receive the attention they deserve, in any case without the discourse itself getting infected by the virus of the black economy. This is so especially from the point of view of the need to articulate the policies which are much more than mere (…)

• Indian Economy: A Rocking Horse Galloping Forward — IV

  8 June 2012, by Kobad Ghandy

  This is the fourth and last part of a four-part article on the current state of the Indian economy by Kobad Ghandy. The author is a Marxist/Maoist thinker, incarcerated in Tihar Jail; he has written two books: one on the Indian economy (Globalisation: Attack on India’s Soveregnty, 2004) and the other on the world economy (Capitalism in Coma, 2009). The first, second and third parts of this article appeared in this journal’s May 5, 2012, May 19, 2012 and May 26, 2012 issues respectively. (…)

• No More Sunshine

  8 June 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Foggy days with low visibility are not unusual in this season in New Delhi but they have never been so hazardous as they are in Indian politics today. In fact, there is little sign of sunshine breaking out in the near future as the Parliament meets for its Budget session in less than two weeks, on February 20.
  Twelve months ago, there was no warning from the government how serious was the economic prospect. Rather the Finance Minister, heralding the so-called new (…)

• Contradictory Aspects of Jihad’s Geopolitical Realities in South Asia

  8 June 2012, by Ajay K. Mehra

  BOOK REVIEW
  Jihad on Two Fronts: South Asia’s Unfolding Drama, by Dilip Hiro; HarperCollins Publishers India, NOIDA, UP; Rs 699.
  This fourteen-chapter (plus an Introduction and an Epilogue) 471-page book by a veteran journalist-author, who has presented a number of analyses on world affairs as well as written some fictions in the past, seeks to analyse the politics, context(s) and process(es) of jihad in South Asia. ‘Jihad’ is an Arabic word, meaning ‘effort’. In the Qur’an Sharif it (…)