Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  The Conciliatory Revolutionary

  10 August 2008, by Darshan Singh

  On October 2, 2006, the thought of writing a novel based on the life of CPM stalwart Harkishan Singh Surjeet began to germinate in my mind. The idea took me to Surjeet’s residence where I sat with him and other members of his family in the verandah of his spacious Delhi home. We began talking over sips of oversweet tea. I told him that I was writing a novel set against the backdrop of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections in which he played a pivotal role, and I wanted him to help fill in the blanks. (…)

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  Comrade Surjeet—the True Marxist

  10 August 2008, by Sitaram Yechury

  * Comrade Surjeet is no more. A flood of memories overwhelms me as I start to write this. I met him first in 1973, 35 years ago. His sharp and, at times, mischievous eyes, and the speed of his speech would often leave me and fellow comrades confused trying to decipher exactly what he had said. He was always quicksilver, thought on his feet, leaving his political adversaries at least two steps behind.
  * When I came into the Central Committee in 1984 and started working for the party’s (…)

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  I have Consciously taken a Principled Decision

  10 August 2008, by Somnath Chatterjee

  Document On August 1, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee broke his silence on his expulsion from the CPI-M with a lengthy press statement. We are carrying here the text of that statement for the benefit of our readers. —Editor
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  July 23, 2008 has been one of the saddest days of my life, when I was informed through the media of the summary expulsion from my membership of the CPI-M for “seriously compromising the position of the Party”. The expulsion has meant cessation of my (…)

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  Creatively Abstract the Legacy of Buddhist Samgha

  10 August 2008, by Sharad Patil

  Communication
  After the parliamentary session on the trust vote was over, Communist veterans in Kerala and West Bengal, who were thrown out of the party, raised the outcry against Somnath Chatterjee’s expulsion from the CPI-M that “there is no democracy in the CPI-M”. Their complaint is against the ‘centralised democracy’, in the communist jargon ‘democratic centralism’. The issue is not between centralised democracy versus non-centralised one as is still taken to be. Stalin, who is still (…)

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  Renegotiate What?

  10 August 2008, by G. Balachandran

  The issue of renegotiating the 123 Agreement between India and the US has come to the fore of late. We reproduce here the following article appearing in The Indian Express (July 22, 2008) and publish its rejoinder by a distinguished scientist. —Editor
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  About the Indo-US nuclear deal, it is time to call a spade a spade—especially the assertions made by political parties and personnel from the Department of Atomic Energy, the IFS and others that the Indo-US (…)

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  Renegotiate What in the 123?—An Enormous Amount!

  10 August 2008, by Ashok Parthasarathi

  The article by G. Balachandran in The Indian Express of July 22, 2008 entitled “Renegotiate What?” (in the 123 Agreement) is grossly inadequate, indeed dismissive. There are numerous Articles in the so-called Indo-US 123, “frozen” with effect from August 1, 2007, that require major re-negotiation. Here goes.
  Firstly, Article 2.1 specifying that “Each Party … Respective national laws …”, is highly dangerous. That is why both the US-China and the US-Japan 123 are worded to contain the (…)

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  Trust Vote 2008: Indian Political Parties and the "Deal"

  10 August 2008, by Kamala Prasad

  The Trust-Vote debate on July 21 and 22 has generated unexpected political consequences. The ruling UPA won in the number’s game but not in terms of the half-way mark through declared voting intentions. The PM and the Foreign Minister focused on the India-USA Nuclear Deal. The Opposition, on the other hand, focused on the entire performance in the context of the general election within eight months. The reply the PM made targeted its allies of four years and two months. To make his point he (…)

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  China in Africa

  10 August 2008, by Purnima Roy

  China has been making vigorous efforts to establish a firm foothold in Africa since the beginning of the new century. Prior to the 1990s China had a common policy towards Africa, mainly based on ideology. China was also involved in building railways in countries like Zambia and Tanzania.
  The initial interest in China was ideology based. However, this was till the 1990s; thereafter there was no common policy for China. In the latter half of the 1990s the Chinese policy was based on (…)

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  Nuclear Deal and Some Strategic Considerations

  10 August 2008, by S G Vombatkere

  The Indo-US nuclear deal (N-deal), called the 123 Agreement, is for cooperation between India and the USA concerning peaceful uses of N-energy. The UPA Government claims that it is meant to ensure India’s energy security through assured sources of uranium supply from the NSG to operate to-be-constructed N-power reactors, by liberating India from the sanctions (“nuclear apartheid”) that were imposed following India’s N-tests, Pokharan I and Pokharan II. It has been noted elsewhere that it was (…)

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  How to Protect the Weakest OBC Communities

  10 August 2008, by Bharat Dogra

  In the process of implementing reservations for OBCs (Other Backward Classes) on the basis of the Mandal Commission Report, it has been seen at many places that a few influential and powerful communities manage to corner the benefits, while the weakest communities get almost no benefits. How can we overcome this problem so that reservations can be implemented in a more just way to benefit all deserving communities?
  How can we deny undue advantages to some powerful sections while (…)