Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Role of Civil Society in the Empowerment of the Disabled

  29 March 2008, by Duryodhan Nahak

  Understanding disability has undergone a sea- change in the last few decades especially in the Western countries; this has been significantly shaped by what is known as the social model of disability. The ‘social model of disability’ was a response to the ‘individual/medical model’ that dominated until the 1990s. According to individual/medical model, some physiological or chemical system might be missing or atrophied, or might have been damaged through illness, accident or some other (…)

• Statement of Students Against Nuclear Power (SANP) on Indefinite Hunger Strike in Protest against Indo-US Nuclear Deal

  29 March 2008

  [(Kerala students, who have set up an organisation, Students Against Nuclear Power (SANP), were on indefinite hunger strike at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to project their demand that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal be scrapped, gave up their fast after eight days on March 17, 2008 following the intervention of and assurance from various socio-political leaders. Their demand has been powerfully raised in the Lok Sabha and in the crucial meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the deal. They (…)

• Callous Indifference to Struggle for Human Rights

  22 March 2008, by SC

  Writing in the International Herald Tribune on the recent uprising in Tibet H.D.S. Greenway makes certain profound observations that offer considerable food for thought.
  Recently I visited the Jokhang (Tibet’s most sacred shrine)... As folk from the countryside poured into Lhasa, and to other shrines in the post-harvest pilgrimage season, one sensed that all China’s attempts to crush Tibet’s Tantric Buddhist traditions, the destruction of its monasteries, the dispersal and imprisonment of (…)

• Need to Escape from the Death Chamber

  22 March 2008, by Taslima Nasreen

  The following is a detailed explanation as to why the Bangladeshi author-in-exile, Taslima Nasreen, was finally forced to leave her adopted homeland, Bharatvarsha. This is an open indictment of the Central authorities in New Delhi and the West Bengal Government in Kolkata directly responsible for driving her out of the country in order to appease the Muslim fundamentalists. —Editor
  I used to call this the torture chamber. I gradually came to realise that it was the chamber of (…)

• Tibet : Growing Prospects of Reconciliation

  22 March 2008, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  The Dalai Lama’s recent visit to the USA has, as expected, touched off angry reaction in Beijing, supplementing the discomforting uneasiness the Chinese officialdom had had to face with the demonstration of Tibetan women raising the question of human rights at the NGO Forum held side by side with the UN Conference on Women.
  The usual Chinese charge has been that the Dalai Lama was indulging in political activity, since he had approached President Clinton at a time when China is not in the (…)

• Millions of Suffering People ask: When will the Colossal Human Tragedy caused by Landmines End?

  22 March 2008, by Bharat Dogra

  Till last count the world had nearly 473,000 victims of landmine explosions—wounded in very painful ways and frequently maimed and/or disabled, sometimes suffering from life-long disability. Thousands of people are being added to this number every year as more injuries and deaths from landmine explosions are reported from various parts of the world. For each such victim there are several family members, dependants, close friends and relatives who too share the sufferings of serious injury (…)

• Union Budget 2008-09: Dominant Impressions

  22 March 2008, by Kamala Prasad

  The Union Budget for the financial year
  2008-09 saw impressive build-up by the media and the powerful lobbies. Some moderation in the growth rate was played up in a sustained manner not only to protect what various industry sectors have got but to corner additional sops in the Budget. The Budget was expected, therefore, to offer stimulus to revive the sagging sectors. This reality merely certified that the Budget has gainers and losers. Among them, there are social biases in gains and (…)

• Colossal Wastage of Human Resources in West Bengal

  22 March 2008, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  The Supreme Court of India in its celebrated judgement in “J.P.Unnikrishnan versus State of Andhra Pradesh” (AIR 1993 SC 2178), while expounding the inherent implication of Article 21 (Protection of Life and Personal Liberty), held that the State had the obligation and duty to provide free education up to 14 years of age. Following that judgement and other action by the civil society groups Article 21A—Right to Education—was inserted in the Constitution by the Eightysixth Constitution (…)

• Russia throws a Wrench in NATO’s Works

  22 March 2008, by M K Bhadrakumar

  For the first time in the 60-year history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Russia will attend the alliance’s summit meeting on April 2-4 in Bucharest, Romania.
  It is clear that NATO will defer to a future date any decision to put Ukraine and Georgia on its Membership Action Plan. This means effectively that the two former Soviet republics cannot draw closer to NATO for another year at the very least, which in turn implies that the earliest the two countries can realise (…)

• Bhagat Singh and the Ghadar Movement

  22 March 2008, by Harish K Puri

  The anniversary of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom falls on March 23—he was executed on that day in 1931, 77 years ago. Last year Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary was befittingly observed on September 28. To mark his death anniversary we are carrying the following articles.
  —Editor
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  It is well known that from his young age Bhagat Singh was deeply impressed by the Ghadar Movement and that he regarded Kartar Singh Sarabha as his hero. Bandi Jeewan by Sachindranath Sanyal, which (…)