Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Why do Urban Voters not Register their Votes?

  13 May 2009, by Sandeep Shastri

  In the ongoing Lok Sabha polls many of those who had the chance to exercise their franchise did not do so. For every voter who decides to exercise his/her franchise there is another voter who is either unable to vote or decides against making the journey to the voting machine. What are its implications for the health of Indian democracy? How do we explain this phenomenon of ‘low‘ voter turnout? How ‘low‘ is low?
  In the recent past, a trend has been increasingly visible across the (…)

• ’Q’ Factor Returns to Revive Bofors’ Ghost

  2 May 2009, by SC

  As the multi-phase electoral exercise for the 15th Lok Sabha enters a crucial stage, the ‘Q’ factor has returned to haunt the Congress: more than 19 years after the Bofors kickbacks case brought down the Rajiv Gandhi Government, the issue has resurfaced in the midst of the poll process—just three weeks before the UPA Government’s term ends, it has come to light that Ottavio Quattrocchi, the lone surviving suspect in the case responsible for a veritable political earthquake in the 1989 (…)

• Conspiracy by Chhattisgarh Administration

  2 May 2009, by Ilina Sen

  The following is an SOS message sent to all friends of Dr Binayak Sen by Ilina Sen, his wife. She has alleged that the Chhattisgarh authorities are trying to liquidate him by any means, fair or foul. This is a serious matter and human rights groups and civil society organisations have a bounden duty to come forward and foil this nefarious attempt as well as ensure that Dr Sen gets proper treatment at the CMC, Vellore as suggested by Dr Ashish Malhotra, who medically examined him. —Editor (…)

• ’Chhattisgarh Government Seems to Want to Kill Me’: Binayak Sen

  2 May 2009, by Vinay Sitapati

  Arrested for being a Naxal supporter, Chhattisgarh doctor Binayak Sen has been in Central Jail, Raipur for the last two years. His trial is currently going on in the Raipur Sessions Court. In the 47 degrees Celsius heat and under the watchful eyes of the Central Jail authorities, he spoke to Vinay Sitapati of The Indian Express. It is being reproduced from the daily, with due acknowledgement, for the benefit of our readers.
  INTERVIEW
  The recent Chhattisgarh elections were particularly (…)

• Nehru Must Be Turning In His Grave

  2 May 2009, by Nayantara Sahgal

  The following views of Nayantara Sahgal, a distinguished writer and herself a niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, on Varun Gandhi’s hate-speech were conveyed to Sheela Reddy who put them in the form of a piece that appeared in Outlook (March 30, 2009) from where it is being reproduced, with due acknowledgement, for the benefit of our readers. —Editor
  There’s only one word for the speech that Varun Gandhi gave in Pilibhit last fortnight—disgraceful. It’s horrifying that anybody could speak like (…)

• Agricultural Prospects and the Rural Economy in China and India

  2 May 2009, by Gilbert Etienne

  Agriculture is again in the world news with the food crisis in 2007-08. In Asia, agriculture has been neglected during the past twenty years. In Africa the situation is much worse since more decades. Now, from China to South-East and South Asia, governments are rediscovering their farmers. In Beijing, as in New Delhi, one hears the same worries: growing income disparities between towns and villages, rising imports of agricultural commodities, social malaises leading in China to violent (…)

• Gravy Train to Pakistan

  2 May 2009, by M K Bhadrakumar

  AID SWEETENER TO FIGHT TERROR
  The aid conference held in Tokyo last week with the agenda of salvaging the Pakistani economy has come up with an impressive pledge of $ 5.28 billion. The US and Japan promised one billion dollars each to Pakistan over the next two years while Saudi Arabia committed $ 700 million and the European Union $ 640 million. Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, saluted the conference as “an extreme success” and added: “I think (…)

• Economic Ideology of the Congress: Empowering the Poor

  2 May 2009, by Arjun Sengupta

  It was Gandhiji who first gave the economic ideology of the Congress a concrete formulation, to bring “Swaraj for the hungry and the starving millions”. “Swaraj” is nothing but “empowerment” for the poor to gain control over their own life and destiny. For Nehru, the objective was the same, clearly formulated on the midnight of Indian independence, as “the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity to bring freedom and opportunity to the common man”.
  That (…)

• Repressive State

  2 May 2009, by Anand Chakravarti

  COMMUNICATION
  While agreeing with the main thrust of Vandana Mishra’s article, ‘Crises of Indian Parties’ (Mainstream, March 14, 2009), I am unable to endorse her introductory paragraph. In fact, it runs against the grain of her own argument. The principal argument of her article may be summed up in her words: “Opportunism has overtaken ideology in politics.” (p.14) This is elaborated in the sections on the personality cult, defections, and criminalisation. It is evident from the (…)

• Mayawati’s Gimmicks

  2 May 2009, by Shiv Kumar Mishra

  Between two aspirants for the coveted post of India’s Prime Minister, Advani and Mayawati, an interesting competition is on. Both first got their biographies written but felt that the author’s appeal is not enough; they must prove that none can do justice to their achievements than they themselves. So Lal Advani wrote My Country, My Life on which his loyalists in the Sangh Parivar are showering encomiums. Mayawati has brought out a multi-volume autobiography My Struggle-ridden Life and the (…)