Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• The Idea of Minority

  10 April 2010, by C B Muthamma

  People will recall that some years ago the Shiv Sena first caught the news headlines with its campaign against “Madrasis”, that is, South Indians living in Mumbai. A few years later this campaign faded out and was replaced by a campaign against non-Maharattas. It was as if Maharashtra was a sovereign country, indepen-dent of the contributions to its growth and importance by businessmen, scientists, adminis-trators and others from all over the country. In recent years the Shiv Sena has (…)

• Chicken-heart

  10 April 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The unprovoked shooting down of an Iranian civilian airbus by the US warships in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf on July 3 killing nearly 300 innocent lives, has shocked the world public.
  In a pathetic bid to cover up this ghastly crime by the American armada, President Reagan called it “a terrible human tragedy” but sought to justify it by saying that it was “a proper defensive action” by the US Navy. Through a series of false (…)

• Why is the Union Home Minister Silent on Police Reforms and Human Rights?

  10 April 2010, by K S Subramanian

  The Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, made two notable presentations recently. In one, delivered to top police officials, he dwelt at length on the Maoist threat to the country. In the other, delivered to top intelligence officials, the Minister went into the new national security architecture he proposes to set up. However, he had nothing to say on the vexed issue of enforcing police reforms and protecting human rights.
  Important official reports in this regard are the 2006 Soli (…)

• Whither Tribal Autonomy in the Fifth Schedule Areas of Betul district (Madhya Pradesh)

  10 April 2010, by J.J. Roy Burman

  The provision of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution has generated a lot of interest in the affairs of welfare and development mostly in the areas predominated by the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the central belt of India. Social activists and a group of bureaucrats and ex-bureaucrats are claiming that this Schedule is the panacea for all tribal discord. If the tenets of this constitutional provision are fully implemented the tribesmen will emancipate from their present state of plight and (…)

• How Branded Products are Cheating the Consumers

  10 April 2010, by P K Bhargava

  In the process of growth of an economy like India, the level of income of the people, though unevenly, has also been continuously increasing. The increased level of income of the people has a significant impact on their consumption levels. In the process, not only does the demand for existing products increase but at the same time people prefer to shift to better quality products. One can, therefore, notice that industries per-taining to the ‘consumer goods’ sector are making rapid progress (…)

• Intricate Study of India and China in Comparative Analysis

  10 April 2010, by Amna Mirza

  BOOK REVIEW
  Chasing the Dragon: Will India Catch Up with China? by Mohan Guruswamy and Zorawar Daulet Singh; Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd., licensees of Pearson Education in South Asia; Second Impression, 2010; pages 188.
  In the comparative analysis for the South Asian neighbourhood and world geopolitics, pitching India contra China is customary. The two nations sharing historical and civilsational bondages, frontiers, alongside asymmetry in terms of resources, territory, (…)

• Pakistan’s Wish for a Nuclear Deal!

  10 April 2010, by Priyanka Singh

  Even before the dust could settle down after the India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary level talks failed to generate much hope on the roadmap of peace, there is furore on the possibility of the US offering a nuclear deal to Pakistan. Prior to the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, there was widespread speculation on a nuclear deal between the US and Pakistan similar to the India-US civilian nuclear agreement. At the end of the dialogue on March 25, both sides pledged “wide-ranging, long-term and (…)

• Implications of the US-Pakistan Strategic Nexus on Our Region

  10 April 2010, by M K Bhadrakumar

  This following article was published in The Hindu several days ago. It is being reproduced now for the benefit of our readers as its contents remain broadly valid at this point in time.
  The idea of engaging the Taliban, which welled up stealthily to the surface during the London Conference on Afghanistan on January 29, has since become the official American and British policy. It has imparted a competitive edge to the region’s political environment. The resultant tensions complicate the (…)

• Rebuff Washingon’s Game-plan

  10 April 2010, by Bashir Mohammad

  A vivid example of the symbiosis of terrorists and criminals is the self-proclaimed Kosovo Republic in the Balkans. The Albanian leaders from the former Kosovo Liberation Army (that sought to “libeate” Kosovo from Serbia) were mostly engaged in human and drug trafficking. What is noteworthy is that Sali Berisha, Ramush Haradinal and Hashim Thaci—who have all served as Kosovo’s Prime Ministers—had been allegedly involved in illegal trade in the human organs of kidnapped Serbs. However, the (…)

• On Modi, G.P. Koirala and Kanu Sanyal

  27 March 2010, by SC

  While several publications in the Capital have highlighted the US dilemma over how much to appease the Pakistani Army as well as those in authority in Islamabad owing allegiance to the Generals, three names have come into prominence in the course of the last few days: Narendra Modi, Girija Prasad (GP) Koirala and Kanu Sanyal.
  Narendra Modi, the Gujarat CM, failed to turn up on March 21 before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team inquiring into the massacre in (…)