Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Mamata propels Historic Change in West Bengal

  24 May 2011, by SC

  The counting of votes for elections to the five State Assemblies now being over, it’s time to analyse the outcome.
  The results of the State Assembly elections have dealt a stunning blow to the Left establish-ments, notably the CPM whose present-day juvenile leaders only about three years ago were harbouring the grand illusion of running the Union Government without sharing any responsibility in its functioning by becoming its integral part. They have been forced to bite the dust in West (…)

• Using Water Conflicts for US Benefit in Central and South Asia

  24 May 2011

  by HASAN HAMIDULLAH
  The US is eager to reclaim its right to mediate between India and Pakistan on disputes between the two neighbouring states of South Asia (and these disputes are not negligible by any reckoning). Despite strong opposition from New Delhi the Obama Administration is trying to invent one pretext after another to reassert that right. The latest one is the water dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad that Washington is seeking to exploit to its advantage.
  On February 22, (…)

• Osama — Before and After

  24 May 2011

  by HAMID MIR
  “It does not matter if I die....my death and the death of others like me will one day awaken millions of Muslims from their apathy.” Osama bin Laden addressed these words to me in March 1997, in a cave in eastern Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains. I was the first Pakistani journalist to interview him. In May 1998 I encountered him for the second time in a hideout near Kandahar airport. He again mentioned his possible death, saying: “They cannot arrest me alive.” I received his (…)

• ’Most Significant Achievement in Our Nation’s Effort to Defeat Al-Qaeda’

  24 May 2011

  DOCUMENT by BARACK OBAMA
  The following are excerpts from US President Barack Obama’s address to the American people on May 2, 2011.
  Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the US has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
  It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the US (…)

• The State of the Empire— Some Reflections on the Geopolitical Situation

  24 May 2011, by Ninan Koshy

  If anybody had hopes that the replacement of a Republican President by a Democratic President would reform, if not begin to dismantle the Empire, their hopes have been totally belied. The continuation of the Bush era policies, military doctrines and strategies by President Obama is deeply disquieting, but not surprising. In the wake of the Bush Administration’s disastrous neoconservative ideologies, the Obama Administration initially appeared to be seeking to realise the liberal (…)

• On the Killing of Osama and Beyond

  24 May 2011

  by ADFAR RASHID SHAH
  Operation Geronimo by the US forces to kill Osama bin Laden speaks much beyond a mere encounter to eliminate a wanted man. On one hand, it seems a timely vote-bank politics for the coming presidential elections in America, proving the coloured relevance of the war on terror, a clever dramaturgy of exit from Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. as the US and its allies are paying a huge price for keeping their forces inside these turbulent regions. On the other hand, American (…)

• Letter to Dr Manmohan Singh

  24 May 2011, by S G Vombatkere

  Dear Dr Manmohan Singh,
  I am writing concerning the decision of the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest, Shri Jairam Ramesh, giving final forest and environmental clearance to the Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) for its project in Odisha.
  Shri Jairam Ramesh and the Odisha Government have disregarded the resolutions of Palli Sabhas (Village Councils) that opposed handover of land for the proposed POSCO project. As per Section 6 of the Forest Rights Act 2006, villagers of (…)

• Anna Hazare’s Feat: A Sceptic’s Treatise

  24 May 2011, by Diptendra Raychaudhuri

  I have no hesitation in acknowledging that I was inspired by Anna Hazare’s fast and the response of the younger generation to it. I was never optimistic that it would be a big step towards some radical change in our rotting system. I knew the hype created by Hazare himself, the media, and the middle- and upper middle-class boys and girls was blowing things out of proportion by creating a myth of the Lokpal as a panacea to weed out corruption. But I thought even a small step towards the right (…)

• WEST BENGAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2011: A Perspective beyond Conventional Frame

  24 May 2011, by A K Biswas

  Every election, Assembly or Parliament, in India exposes the interiors of social panorama in original colours. The manifestation of social realities attain fullness, be it in the cow-belt or in the so-called progressive States. In the case of States like West Bengal, discussion of caste via-a-vis election or for that matter on any occasion is abhorred and considered blas-phemous. A social anthropological analysis of the ground realities nonetheless is worth, though such an attempt might be (…)

• The Left Really Matters

  24 May 2011

  by K.N. RAMACHANDRAN
  We have no hesitation to agree with Prabhat Patnaik that significant transition has taken place in India from those days when it was reduced to a colony of British imperialism, especially during the 20th century, under the long democratic revolution starting from the time of the First War of Independence of 1857, and which is still continuing. We also agree with him when he says that the Indian democratic revolution today is faced with the prospects of being (…)