Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Educational Reforms: Issues of Quality and Equity

  1 March 2010, by P R Dubhashi

  ‘The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009’, that has come into force after the relevant Bill was passed by Parliament, and the recommendations of the Bansal Committee appointed by the Government of Maharashtra for the regulation of fees charged by non-aided schools are two important measures for educational reforms discussed in this article.
  Fee Fixation by Unaided Institutions
  Recent measures to introduce educational reforms have put into sharp focus issues of (…)

• Implementing Right to Education Act

  1 March 2010, by B.C. Mehta, Kranti Kapoor

  The Bill to provide free education for all children in the age-group 6-14 (which has now become an Act) ensures that any child can demand provision of free education to him or her in his or her neighbourhood right up to the 8th class. It is also claimed that the state will provide compulsory elementary education. Here there is some confusion. Right to education implies that the parents of some children want to get their children educated but fail to do so because there is no school in the (…)

• Centre’s Changing Strategy

  1 March 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The crisis over Telangana which has overtaken New Delhi has been the creation of the Congress leaders themselves. On one hand Dr Channa Reddy’s political frustration has led him to ignite the flames of regional chauvinism, and it is this that has stirred up the present round of violence in Telangana. On the other hand, Sri Brahmananda Reddy’s over-bearing cock-sureness deceived the Centre in a manner that few Chief Ministers have been able to achieve so far.
  Sri Brahmananda Reddy (…)

• Outstanding Economist, Institution Builder, Beacon for Young People

  1 March 2010, by C. Rammanohar Reddy

  TRIBUTE
  The years after independence saw a number of outstanding young men and women throw their hearts and bodies into building a new India. K.N. Raj was a giant of that generation. Today when careerists and those who put their self-interest above everything else rule the day, it is important to stress how K.N. Raj and others of his kind, one could very easily have made their names anywhere in the world, were fired with passion for just one thing: contributing to a modern and equitable (…)

• Sour Men of the Central Indian Wooded Uplands!

  1 March 2010, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  On February 9, 2010, a solemn and portentous conclave was held by the Sheriff of Hindoostan and his two Vice-Sheriffs of Banga and Kalinga provinces in what was once known as Calcutta and is now called Kolkata. Two other Vice-Sheriffs of Anga provinces slipped away to keep their options open. The reason for this grave conference was to chalk out a plan of action to contain, if not to exterminate, the menace of Naxalism (Maoism) in the Central Indian wooded uplands which start from the edges (…)

• Need for the Second States Reorganisation Commission

  1 March 2010, by Ranbir Singh

  The acceptance in principle of the demand for the formation of Telangana by the Union Home Minister on December 9, 2009 for defusing the situation created by the deteriorating health of K. Chandrashekhar Rao, the leader of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) not only led to a powerful reaction in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of the Andhra State but also resulted in revival of the demand for Harit Pradesh and Bundelkhand in UP, Maru Pradesh in Rajasthan, Coorg in Karnataka, (…)

• Need to Stop Politics on Human Rights

  1 March 2010, by Satish Kumar

  Recently the ex-Army chief of Sri Lanka created a wave by saying that many Tamil separatists were gunned down by the Army when they were ready to surrender. If this is true then there is a gross violation of human rights. According to General Sarath Fonseka, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the Defence Secretary—the brother of the current President—instructed soldiers not to take in rebel prisoners. Sri Lankan authorities have resisted international calls for a war crimes investigation amid allegations (…)

• West Bengal: Younger CPM Leaders’ Attitude to Jyoti Basu

  1 March 2010, by Barun Das Gupta

  Has the death of the nonagenerian party patriarch, Jyoti Basu, really caused an “irreparable loss” to the CPI-M or created a “void” in the party difficult to fill—as is being talked about in political circles? This writer does not think so. In his twilight years Jyoti Basu had little influence on the younger leaders of the party, whether at the national or State level. Some of them, notably the present Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, never tried to conceal their contempt for him. (…)

• Maoist Upsurge and the Development Strategy

  1 March 2010, by Rakesh Gupta

  BOOK REVIEW
  Maoism In India: Reincarnation of Ultra-Leftwing Extremism in the Twentyfirst Century by Bidyut Chakravarty and Rajat Kujur; Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series, Routledge, Taylor and Francis, London and New York; 2010; pages 250.
  The book under review has seven chapters, six appendices, a bibliography and an index. The first three chapters are of historical and organisational import. The last one is on the future of the movement. The intervening two chapters are on the (…)

• Turning a Blind Eye to “Economic Terrorists”

  1 March 2010

  COMMUNICATION
  I would support Naxalism sans its violence. Some call the Naxals “terrorists”. If at all they could be called terrorists, they are too small a section of the society. There is a larger and stronger class of capitalists, who should ideally be described as “economic terrorists”, for a majority of them plunder the economy, with the overt and covert support of the politicians and bureaucrats. This class has always ensured that certain sections of the society are deprived of basic (…)