Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Russia peers into Kyrgyz Void

  27 June 2010, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Eighteen is a difficult age to own decisions or assume responsibility—especially concerning the fortunes of wayward younger siblings. By a curious coincidence, Russia has been tasked with taking a monumental decision of assuming responsibility on the 18th anniversary of its national day when on Saturday (June 12) the Kremlin received a formal communication from the President of the interim government of Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbayeva.
  By Otunbayeva’s own description, “We need the arrival of (…)

• Afghanistan: The March of Folly

  27 June 2010, by Maharajakrishna Rasgotra

  The United States is in the process of committing a historical blunder with grave consequences for not only Afghanistan but also the regions surrounding it. President Barack Obama’s decision to begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan in 2011 is under-standable: the long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taxed the patience of the Americans, and the President himself must start planning his campaign for the second term. But it is the manner of the planned exit and its (…)

• Congress in a Tight Spot

  20 June 2010, by SC

  Inflation has once again touched the double-digit mark causing considerable concern in government circles (never mind the brave face put up by the Finance Ministry officials and the Finance Minister hinting at a tighter monetary policy regime and asserting that the Reserve Bank of India would take appropriate measures to tackle the problem). The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) figures for May have put inflation at 10.2 per cent over the year. It has been particularly high in case of certain (…)

• Some Lessons from the Bhopal Outcome

  20 June 2010, by V R Krishna Iyer

  The court verdict shows that India is still in a Victorian imperial-feudal era, distances away from the socialist dream
  The mass slaughter that occurred in Bhopal on December 2, 1984 was the consequence of an American multinational corporation dealing with Indian lives in a cavalier manner. Some 20,000 people were “gasassinated”. Yet, after 26 years of trial, the culprits get two years of rigorous imprisonment as punishment. Such a thing can happen only in bedlam Bharat.
  The (…)

• Grim Warning from Bhopal

  20 June 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following are the pieces on the Bhopal tragedy written by N.C. soon after the disaster that rocked the Union Carbide plant as well as the nation in the night of December 2-3, 1984. The first was written as ‘Observer’ and the second as ‘Sentinel’.
  It was a massacre of innocents by all counts. What happened at the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal in the early morning of December 3 was not just a tragedy but a heinous crime which killed nearly two thousand and (…)

• Bhopal: Some Questions for Scientists

  20 June 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The ten days that followed the Union Carbide’s killer gas leak in its plant at Bhopal on December 3 have not only seen the death of nearly three thousand people and more than a lakh hospitalised, but have brought in its train dramatic developments with far-reaching implications. The Chairman of the Union Carbide Corporation, Warren Anderson, was arrested and bundled out of Bhopal, while the Chairman of the Indian branch of the Union Carbide, Keshub Mahindra, and its Managing Director, V.P. (…)

• Oaths, Promises, Lucre and Bhopal

  20 June 2010, by Mukul Dube

  In what are generally, though not always, correctly called democratic countries, governments are elected by the people. Typically, the members of elected governments take oaths when they assume office. In these oaths they promise to do certain things. Without exception, the things they promise to do are to be in the service and defence of the people who elected them. No Minister in India, for example, has sworn to harm India’s people. His or her duty, the justification for her or his (…)

• Bhopal Verdict—A Cruel Joke

  20 June 2010, by Soma S. Marla

  Twentysix long years after the gruesome accident of methyl isocyanate (MIC) toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, the district court of Bhopal has finally delivered its verdict. Eight persons, including the former Chairman of the plant Keshub Mahindra (who is next to the CEO of the plant, Warren Anderson), were found responsible for negligence that led to the death of countless innocent citizens of Bhopal. But to the dismay and frustration of the world and the families of (…)

• Constitutional Crisis in Manipur

  20 June 2010, by Nandita Haksar

  From the time I first visited Manipur I have been painfully aware of the divisions within the Manipur society. And I have also been aware how deeply ignorant the rest of us in India are about the history and geography of the area.
  The first time I went to Ukhrul was in 1982 as a part of a women’s team to investigate into the human rights violations by the Indian armed forces during a counter-insurgency operation. The team was headed by Pramila Dandavate. In her first speech in Ukhrul (…)

• Muivaha’s Intended Visit to Somdal Stirs up Demand for Nagalim

  20 June 2010, by Aveivey. D

  The demand for a Greater Nagaland or Nagalim and the intended visit of the General Secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM), Thuingleng Muivah, to his ancestral village Somdal in the Ukhrul district of Manipur has brought the State of Manipur to the centre stage of political controversy. Isak Swu and Muivah of the Greater Naga movement, and popularly known as the leaders of NSCN-IM, have been demanding a separate homeland for the Naga people scattered across the (…)