Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Global Financial Crisis: A Classic ’Ponzi’ Affair?

  27 October 2008, by Sunanda Sen

  The current turmoil in the US financial market and its spilling over to financial markets overseas has made it once more evident that we need to scrutinise the validity and relevance of the neo-liberal theory and policies which brought about this mess.
  We try in the following pages, to interpret the crisis: first, by identifying the two special characteristics of the current crisis which also explain its intensity. We also look into the dominant precepts behind, an uncritical acceptance (…)

• India: Puzzled Vendors of Washington Consensus

  27 October 2008, by Girish Mishra

  Ever since the crisis originating on Wall Street has spread far and wide like a contagion, the clamour for state intervention to save the global economy in general and financial institutions in particular has become vociferous. Those who, till the other day, were decrying the role of state in the running of economy and were singing the virtues of the Washington Consensus-based globalisation have gone into hibernation. Nobody now talks of ‘the magic of the marketplace’ and of great sermons by (…)

• Politics in the Age of George the Great

  27 October 2008, by Eddie J Girdner

  "He acts as if his head was only made to hold his ears apart." —Hank Williams "I’ll come down and help you, I’ll rape you, I’ll scalp you." —Woody Guthrie “I’ve been struck by Lightning, Struck by Congress.” —Woody Guthrie
  It has been eight years since the putsch in Florida by the neoconservative Storm Troopers stole the presidential election and installed George W. Bush on the White House Throne. The dark days had begun and these dark days have not yet ended. The going after the country (…)

• TULF’s Appeal to Leaders of Political Parties and People of Tamil Naad

  27 October 2008, by V Anandasangaree

  Dear leaders and people of Tamil Naad,
  The First thing the Sri Lankan Tamils expect Tamil Naad to do immediately is to save the people trapped in the LTTE controlled area, where they are kept under compulsion, and secondly to have a true briefing of the present situation without being misled by the TNA parliamentarians of Sri Lanka who are presently in Chennai to have the LTTE rescued. The people whom they claim to represent are in the verge of total annihilation.
  I was deeply moved by (…)

• Politics of Paper Tiger

  27 October 2008, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  When New Delhi‘s diplomatic enclave at Chanakyapuri was planned, the sprawling Chinese Embassy compound came next door to that of the US Embassy. But over the years, many wondered if they would ever talk across the walls. In fact, the Chinese preferred to put up their Chancery entrance furthest from the American.
  Today, as one drives down the same Shanti Path, it is not difficult to visualise the neighbours shaking hands and playing many more games other than ping pong. Once again, the (…)

• A Mad Scramble over Afghanistan

  27 October 2008, by M K Bhadrakumar

  An impression is being created that there is a “rift” between the United States and Britain regarding the reconciliation track involving the Taliban. The plain truth is that the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are in this murky game together.
  The essence of the game is to make the “war on terror” in Afghanistan more efficient and cost-effective. Surely, it is official American thinking that there has to be some form of reconciliation with the Taliban. US Defence Secretary Robert (…)

• Beyond Politics

  25 October 2008, by SC

  While the global financial crisis continues unabated despite fire-fighting by major players on the international scene, the IMF has slashed growth projections for the world economy with a sombre warning: “It is now entering a major downturn in the face of the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s.”
  Although spared for the present the extreme consequences of the crisis, India too is feeling the heat—FIIs are pulling out and the Sensex lost 2000 points in one (…)

• Letter to the PM on taking Urgent Measures for Peace in Kandhamal

  25 October 2008, by Debiprasanna Pattanayak, Manoranjan Mohanty, Pralay Kanungo

  Dear Sir,
  As academics who have studied the socio-economic conditions of modern Orissa and who have been extremely pained by the recent outbreak and persistence of violence in Kandhamal we present the following suggestions which we believe are practical and well within the capacity of the Central Government to undertake. The State Government can be called upon to cooperate in implementing these measures.
  I. Immediate Steps for providing Security for Life and Property
  1. Adequate CRPF (…)

• On Goa and the Challenges before It

  25 October 2008, by Eduardo Faleiro

  The last few decades have witnessed vast changes in political ideology and economic policies across the world. People of different countries have been affected differently but always in a significant manner everywhere. Goa has achieved remarkable progress since independence. The greatest gain of independence, however, has been the feeling of self-respect regained, of liberation, the opening of the portals of opportunity particularly to the vast mass of people who were denied upward (…)

• Who Lives if the Nation Dies?

  25 October 2008, by P K Chatterjee

  This Constitution of India must be scrapped. It is designed to maintain status quo ante and substantially it is only an adaptation of the Government of India Act, 1935. It has failed to give any impetus to national integration; on the contrary, it has divided the people, it has encour-aged corruption instead of rooting it out. It has helped criminalisation of the administrative and political system of the country. It has dismally failed to establish real parliamentary democracy. It has (…)