Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Silver Lining

  2 April 2012, by SC

  Problems and crises don’t seem to leave the ruling United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre. The Army Chief, General V.K. Singh, has been regularly coming out with startling revelations and taking steps causing huge embarrassment for the government in general and Defence Minister A.K. Antony in particular. First came the alleged offer of a Rs 14-crore bribe for the purchase of trucks made a year-and-a-half ago and the Army attributed the offer to General Singh’s former colleague, (…)

• Nuclear Energy and Rutherford-Szilard Episode

  2 April 2012

  COMMUNICATION
  As soon as Mainstream’s March 17, 2012 issue reached Kolkata, I received two phone calls from my two esteemed friends enquiring about the source of my information about the Rutherford-Szilard episode. (‘UN Must Outlaw Nuclear Power Plants’ by Sailendra Nath Ghosh, Mainstream, March 17, 2012)
  My source is the book by Edward Teller, the maker of Hydrogen Bomb. In this book, Energy from Heaven and Earth, in chapter 8, under the heading “The Beginnings of Atomic Energy”, he (…)

• Fourth BRICS Summit: Delhi Declaration

  2 April 2012

  DOCUMENT
  The following is the text of the Delhi Declaration issued by the Fourth BRICS Summit attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Presidents Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Hu Jintao of China and Jacob Zuma of South Africa in the Indian Capital on March 29, 2012: 1. We, the leaders of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, met in New Delhi, India, on (…)

• The Writing on the Wall

  2 April 2012, by Era Sezhiyan

  The Congress should see the message that stands out in the form of the Assembly election results, on the portents it holds.
  Addressing the media on March 7, a day after the results of the five Assembly elections were announced, Congress President Sonia Gandhi attributed the outcome against the party to “wrong candidates, organisational weaknesses, party members not taking serious responsibilities, and too many leaders in the party”. Further, she observed that the electoral rever-ses would (…)

• Time for Kashmir Solution

  2 April 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  There was a time when any statement on Kashmir, either by the Prime Minister of India or that of Pakistan, used to create rumpus. Politicians and the media on both sides would dwell on for several days on what a particular remark tried to convey. Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani said the other day that his country would seek a solution on Kashmir through a dialogue, no hostilities. I have not seen any comment in India nor have I found any Pakistani Opposition leaders or the press (…)

• Union Budget 2012-13: The Well-to-do Must Tighten their Belts

  2 April 2012

  by PANNALAL SURANA
  “Great burden put on the people”—was the shrill cry of the electronic media after the Budget for 2012-13 was presented to Parliament. And what was repeated umpteen times? The A/c travel has become costlier, cigarettes, drinks, eating out etc. have become dearer. The gold and silver traders all over the country declared a hartal for three days in protest against the two per cent increase in the service tax.
  All that is really amusing, if not exasperating.
  One may (…)

• Dimensions of Sri Lanka Crisis

  2 April 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The searing experience of genocidal attack on a whole minority group in neighbouring Sri Lanka has naturally sent shock waves throughout India. It would be wrong and invidious to regard it as a matter of emotional upsetting for the people of Tamil Nadu alone, as some circles bereft of a sense of national integration seem to suggest. In fact, the pre-planned gangsterism in Sri Lanka has spared no pains in turning it into an anti-Indian fury: nothing else can explain the (…)

• Stop Human Rights Violations, Adopt Practical Steps to Meaningful Reconciliation

  2 April 2012

  DOCUMENT
  The following is a Joint Statement of Sri Lankan intellectuals, mobilised under the aegis of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, issued on February 17, 2012. It could not be used earlier for unavoidable reasons.
  Several valuable recommendations are contai-ned in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s (LLRC) Report and they are all the more compelling because they have been issued from a Presidential Commission. In pursuance of this, we the undersigned call upon the (…)

• Need for a National Legislation for Journalists’ Protection

  2 April 2012, by Prabhakar Kulkarni

  Press freedom in our country is not a special privilege of journalists. It is the general principle of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution for all citizens that is being enjoyed by journalists as citizens. In the absence of any special provision and privilege, no special protection for journalists is available today on the basis of any specific legislation.
  Whether or not special freedom needs to be given to journalists may be a matter of different opinions. But special (…)

• India’s Public Debt Explosion: Heading Towards Bankruptcy

  2 April 2012, by B P Mathur

  The huge public debt the Western countries have accumulated, has created an economic crisis and threatens their standard of living. Daniel Gross, the economic editor of Yahoo Finance, writing in Newsweek (Special Issue 2011) says: ‘Until now power has been defined largely by military strength, by control over vital resources like oil, but in coming years, ability to manage debt may be the best indicator where global economic power resides. Threats to sovereignty now come not from domestic (…)