Mainstream Weekly

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• Don’t Invoke the Bogey of Foreign Hand to Hide Bad Governance

  22 May 2012, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  About 23,000 people have decided to surrender their voter cards in protest against continuation of work on the Kudankulam nu-clear plant which is slated to be commissioned in mere 40 days or so. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had supported the cause of the protesters a few months ago but has backed out since then and is now supporting continuation of the plant. The Government of India is of the view that the protestors are being incited by foreign entities—NGOs as well as anti-nuclear (…)

• Arab Spring: Failure of “Manufactured Revolution”

  22 May 2012, by Nilofar Suhrawardy

  In essence, the ongoing phase of political trans-formation, ostensibly in the name of democracy, cannot be described even as a partial success in the few Arab nations that have been affected by it. The process is still taking place. Success remains illusive as well as considerably distorted from what it was projected as initially. Now, this in itself raises two crucial questions. Considering that only a few of the numerous Arab countries have been actually affected by a phase of political (…)

• Babri Masjid Returns to the Fore

  22 May 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  The demolition of the Babri Masjid, which did the greatest harm to India’s secular ethos, has suddenly come to the fore after nearly 20 years. It indicates the intrinsic strength of the system which otherwise has been beaten because of indelible corrupt deals and the weak, faltering governance. It was such a deliberate defiance of law and morality that the destruction could not have been in oblivion for a long time.
  Top BJP leaders like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, linked with the (…)

• Indian Economy: A Rocking Horse Galloping Forward — II

  22 May 2012, by Kobad Ghandy

  This is the second 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 Sovereignty, 2004) and the other on the world economy (Capitalism in Coma, 2009). The first part of this article appeared in Mainstream (May 5, 2012).
  Financial Sector: Where has All the Money Gone?
  Funds/finances are essential for (…)

• In Order to Avoid ’Controversy’!

  22 May 2012, by Bharati Jaganathan

  On January 29, 2012, The Hindu reported that Symbiosis University, Pune, had cancelled a screening of Sanjay Kak’s film, Jashn-e-azadi, following protests registered by some Right-wing organisations. I could not help but recall the shameful removal of an excellent essay by A.K. Ramanujan on the richly diverse Ramayana tradition by the Academic Council of Delhi University in October 2011, supposedly because of its potential to hurt Hindu religious sentiments. And the deplorable ‘exile’ of (…)

• Gladson’s Burden

  22 May 2012

  by MALLIKA SARABHAI
  Gladson is an Adivasi living in the war-torn Jharkhand. When he was a year old, his family—farmers owning 20 acres of fertile land—became homeless. Their ancestral land disappeared when a dam was built on the Chinda river. As compensation, the family was paid ”Rs 11,000”. When their neighbours and they protested, they were sent to Hazaribagh Jail. Could a family of six ensure food, education, housing and health care for their entire life with ”Rs 11,000”? They headed (…)

• A Meaningful Novel in the Backdrop of Bhopal Gas Tragedy

  22 May 2012

  by BRATATI PANDE
  Impeachment by Anjali Deshpande; Hachette India; 2012; pages 369; Rs 350.
  The Gas Tragedy that shook Bhopal very rudely on the terrible day in December in 1984 keeps harking back from time to time mainly because of the enormous scale of the tragedy and the immense indifference and callousness with which it has been handled both by the government and the legal system. It is a matter of great distress for all thinking Indians, the way the Union Carbide was allowed to (…)

• Gorkhaland Territorial Administration: An Overview

  22 May 2012, by Swatahsiddha Sarkar

  The recent tripartite agreement on the Gorkha-land Territorial Administration (GTA) held between the Central Government, State Government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) to usher in normalcy, peace and development in the hill region of the district of Darjeeling, West Bengal has set in motion the potentialities for controversies and politics.
  While the new arrangement of the GTA is considered both by the GJM and the Trinamul Congress (TMC), the ruling party of West Bengal, as a great (…)

• The River of History

  22 May 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  This week all the world over is being celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the victory over fascism. For, this was the week, thirty years ago, when the Hitler war-machine was smashed and the Soviet soldiers hoisted the Red Flag over the war-ravaged Reichstag building in Berlin.
  This was a great turning point in the history of humanity. For, it saw the end of an order in which an exploitative power could conquer countries and enslave nations. Hitler was the last (…)

• Points in Critique of Judgment in Azad - Hem Chandra Pandey Encounter Writ Petitions

  22 May 2012

  The following is the press release distributed at a press conference by Prashant Bhushan and Swami Agnivesh in New Delhi on May 11, 2012 on the Supreme Court ruling on the death of Azad and Hem Chandra Pandey.
  The Supreme Court’s order dated 03.05.2012 dismissing the writ petitions of Hem Chandra Pandey’s widow Bineeta Pandey and Swami Agnivesh should be criticised on the following grounds:
  1. The court failed to appreciate that the petitioners had from the beginning prayed for an (…)