Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Wisdom in Short Supply

  31 January 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The security environment in which the Republic of India steps into the thirtyeight year of its eventful career this week, is, to say the least, disturbing indeed. While one earnestly hopes that the Pakistani arms build-up along our frontier may not escalate into one more tragic war between the two neighbours, the climate of confrontation seems of have already set in. This by itself is an extremely unsettling development which not only threatens to vitiate normal (…)

• A Visit to the Killing Field of Netai

  31 January 2011, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  Netai is a medium-sized village situated deep inside Jungle Mahal of West Bengal’s West Midnapore district and on the banks of the river Kangsabati, locally known as Kasai. The popu-lation of the village is around 2000. The villagers’ main occupation is agriculture. The area is famous for winter vegetables because of their quality and size. It is about 3.5 km from Lalgarh town.
  It had been a peaceful area. There was no intrusion from the armed Maoist groups. Except during the height of (…)

• Making an Example of Binayak Sen

  31 January 2011, by Mukul Dube

  Give a lathi to a dim-witted psychopath and his new ability to break heads and limbs with it will soon have him drunk on power. He will want ever bigger lathis with which to wreak more destruction.
  In its action against Binayak Sen the State has been that violent imbecile. It seems reflexively to have selected the most destructive weapon in its arsenal: the charge of sedition.
  It is beyond comprehension how a physician who works for the poor, and who attempts to prevent their further (…)

• India-Russia Ties in the Neoliberal Era

  31 January 2011, by M K Bhadrakumar

  If last month’s official visit by President Dmitry Medvedev to India came anywhere near being marred, it was from a most unexpected quarter —onions. Indians can’t make curries without onions but now 80 per cent of them can’t afford this vegetable. They were contemplating how to substitute onions with finely chopped leaks when Medvedev arrived.
  Yet, the visit became a page-turner and the youthful President calmed the eye on our tired, jaded political landscape. The visit was “bound to be (…)

• Kannabiran — the Fighter for Your Rights

  31 January 2011, by A K Dasgupta

  TRIBUTE
  It is with a deep sense of grief and sorrow that I write this piece to report the sad demise of Kandadi Gopalaswamy Kannabiran, affectionately called Kanna. He passed away on December 30, 2010, at the age of 81, after prolonged illness. The Amnesty International (AI) has hailed him as “a passionate advocate for human rights”.
  Born on November 8, 1929 in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) to Kandadi Gopalaswamy Iyenger and Pankajan, he had his early early education in Nellore where his family (…)

• Indian Foreign Policy Since The End of Cold War: Containing or Coping with Unipolarity?

  31 January 2011, by Arvind Kumar

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Arvind Kumar
  Indian Foreign Policy in a Unipolar World by Harsh V. Pant (ed.); Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group, London, pp. IX + 378; Price: £ 70.00
  With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union many realists argue that unipolarity has arrived…the USA, in other words, is the sole great power. It has achieved global hegemony, a feat no other country has ever accomplished. Other realists, however, argue that the post-Cold War system is multipolar, (…)

• Pakistan: The Kayani Strategy

  31 January 2011

  by Firdaus Ahmed
  Washington Post informs: ‘US efforts fail to convince Pakistan’s top general to target Taliban’ (December 31, 2010). It writes that ‘In October, Administration officials choreographed a White House meeting for Kayani at which Obama could directly deliver his message of urgency. The Army Chief heard him out, then provided a 13-page document updating Pakistan’s strategic perspective and noting the gap between short-term US concerns and Pakistan’s long-term interests, (…)

• Meeting the Challenge

  31 December 2010, by SC

  Mainstream’s entry into its fortyninth year with this Annual Number has coincided with a crisis afflicting the Indian polity the dimensions of which are unprecedented even by the standards set by the unforeseen developments in our chequered post-independence history.
  The proceedings of both Houses of Parliament were disrupted throughout the winter session by a unified Opposition spearheading the demand for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam, something (…)

• Tribute To Surendra Mohan

  31 December 2010

  Socialist leader Surendra Mohan is no more. He passed away in the morning of September 17 at his residence in Sah Vikas in the Trans-Jamuna area of Delhi. He had health problems no doubt but was not ailing. He literally died in harness. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.
  Only a few months ago one had met him at a meeting in the Capital and requested him for an article for Mainstream as it was necessary for someone like him to write from a Gandhian perspective. He smilingly (…)

• Remembering Surendra Mohan

  31 December 2010, by Devaki Jain

  In the passing away of Surendra Mohan, India has lost one more—soon after L.C. Jain—stalwart of the Indian political landscape. Surendra Mohan and L.C. Jain worked—I used to often tease them—like tweedledum-tweedledee during the space between the results of the elections of 1977 and the formation and definition of the Janata Party of their dreams. I use the term “dreams” as they had envisioned what perhaps most Indian citizens have always aspired for—a highly democratic political party (…)