Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Why does the Prime Minister Not Lose Sleep over Dr Binayak Sen?

  28 November 2007, by Gabriele Dietrich

  On November 2, 2007 eleven security personnel were killed in a blast and indiscriminate firing by Naxalites near Tonguda village close to the Pamed Police Station in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, not far from the Andhra Pradesh border. Grey-hounds from Andhra were brought in for combing operations. It is known that this area has been subjected to Salwa Judum earlier, a form of civil war, by the BJP Government on the Adivasi villages of Dantewada district. The investigations of numerous (…)

• Instrumentality of the CAG and the Executive’s Accountability

  28 November 2007, by M L Malhotra

  BOOK REVIEW
  Government Accountability and Public Audit—Re-Engineering the Comptroller and Auditor General of India by B.P. Mathur; Uppal Publishing House, New Delhi; 2007; Price: Rs 495; pages 328.
  Dr B.P. Mathur, who is the author of the book, Government Accountability and Public Audit, is a former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General and Chairman, Audit Board, and has been an eminent member of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS) with vast, varied and rich experience in the (…)

• To Defend Secularism

  28 November 2007, by Subrata Banerjee

  Badri Raina’s essay on on the cowardly attack on Dr Taslima Nasreen at the Press Club in Hyderabad recently (Mainstream, September 15, 2007) needs to be supplemented on several points.
  First, what really happened on the fateful day? A book release programme was organised at the Press Club, Hyderabad on August 9, 2007 at 11 am. Two books, translated into Telugu from English and Bengali by Mrs Venigalla Komala, were released. One of the books, Wild Swan, has exposed the atrocities on women (…)

• West Bengal’s Agony and Rabindranath’s Prasna

  25 November 2007, by SC

  Shocked into silence by the ongoing ‘Operation Nandigram II’ one has no option in this dark hour but to turn to our National Poet, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, for guidance and solace as this journal did thirtytwo years ago when Emergency descended on this land of ours. Nothing more needs to be conveyed in the circumstances beyond the following unforgettable words of Rabindranath that aptly mirror the anguish of a stunned humanity in the killing fields of Nandigram today. As the drama (…)

• Nandigram: Statement of Concerned Citizens

  25 November 2007

  We, the undersigned, have been dismayed and revolted by the events of the past few days in and around Nandigram in West Bengal’s East Medinipur district. The manner in which the anti-socials of the dominant party in the ruling front attacked the residents to re-establish the domination over the area exposes the party’s commitment to democratic values, principles and norms. The actions of these people under the benign indulgence of the State administration can only strengthen the criminalised (…)

• What is Happening in West Bengal?

  25 November 2007, by Arup Kumar Sen

  West Bengal has experienced three decades of Left Front rule with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) acting as the dominant partner in the coalition government. After coming to power in 1977 the Left Front (LF) Government took some significant land reform measures within the constitutional framework. Keeping this in mind, Atul Kohli characterised the Left Front rule as the ‘rise of reform communism’. Actually, in the early years of its rule, (…)

• PM’s Moscow Visit And Indo-Russian Ties

  25 November 2007, by Ash Narain Roy

  Indo-Russian ties have reached a point where these can be likened to a marriage in which jealousy is greater than love. The romance is long gone. The marriage is going through rough patches, but no one is contemplating a divorce. Marriage is still popular (divorce is not) as it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity. But when the marriage begins to sour, you still have the same bed, but you dream different dreams.
  As the Indian economy has risen, it has taken (…)

• Pakistan : Repeat of 1971?

  25 November 2007, by Sreedhar

  Since the declaration of Emergency on November 3, the developments in Pakistan indicate that the country is slowly drifting into a civil war. General Musharraf’s rule is being opposed by two groups—Jehadis on the one hand and defunct political parties and activists of civil society on the other. The latest reports indicate there is even an under- ground movement opposing General Musharraf. According to unconfirmed reports, the Jehadis have captured large parts of the Swat area and Waziristan (…)

• Lessons from Pakistan

  25 November 2007, by M K Bhadrakumar

  These are early days in Pakistan. But the unfolding developments in that country already offer some very serious lessons for India about the realities of the contemporary world order.
  First and foremost, we now know that being the biggest functioning democracy in the world is hardly the reason behind the U-turn in the United States’ policy toward India since the latter half of the 1990s.
  If India happens to be an engaging partner for the US today, that is because through a self-reliant (…)

• US Dilemma over Pakistan’s Emergency Rule

  25 November 2007, by Neha Kumar

  General Musharraf declared Emergency rule on November 3, 2007 as a desperate attempt to remain in power. He has justified the declaration of Emergency by saying that the terrorist groups surround Pakistan and the active interference of the judiciary has made counterinsurgency operations difficult. Therefore, while addressing Pakistan he states that imposition of Emergency is important for dealing with terrorist groups who have entered into the “heart of Pakistan”. But soon after declaration (…)