Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Panchayats and Neo-Liberal Economy

  24 April 2007

  The Gram Panchayats have become nodal points of grassroot democracy as well as direct democracy. After the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in the Panchayati Raj Act, a background has been created to move towards turning Panchayats into an instrument of self-government rather than working as a mere implementing agency of the government’s line of functioning. The first Round Table of Ministers of Panchayati Raj, held in Kolkata in 2004, clearly delineated the goal of the Panchayati Raj as (…)

• Should Rule of Law Mean Rule of Flawed Laws?

  24 April 2007, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  A rule of law means law enforcement but does not mean enforcement of a flawed law. That is where Parliament has an advantage over the Supreme Court. In reviewing enforcement it also debates the adequacy or inadequacy of the law. The Supreme Court reviews with its hands tied, only the law as it exists. The law becomes a blinker outside of which it cannot see. The Supreme Court can protect a static society, not a dynamic and changing society. It can play no part in promoting and protecting (…)

• For Left Expansion in the Hindi Region

  24 April 2007

  New Age has published a critical article from noted journalist Praful Bidwai regarding the CPM and CPI headlined “Tight-rope Walk with UPA”. It is a welcome feature that New Age allows such views to be published in its columns. If some other persons do so then the Communist leadership will come to know what others are thinking about them. It has become urgent to break out of the narrow circle of the communist movement. Bidwai thinks the CPM and CPI need serious introspection on their (…)

• Some Stray Thoughts

  24 April 2007

  It was at a very young age and before I became a Communist I was convinced that there was neither any god nor God (with capital G). In other words, it was not God who created man in this image. In fact, it was man who invented God because there were many things in nature which he could not explain. These included even such phenomena as eclipse of moon or of sun (Chandra Grahan or Suraj Grahan). In fact he did not even know the phenomenon of rains which would often be a boon for tillers of (…)

• Transfer of Technology to Developing Countries

  24 April 2007, by Surendra J Patel

  Dr Surendra J. Patel, who passed away in Geneva on December 15, 2006, was indeed one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century. At a time when the so-called ‘globalisers’ are in full control of the international economic system, it is necessary to highlight the central message he conveyed in his Technological Transformation and Development in the South (co-edited by Professors Krishna Ahooja-Patel and Henry Voltmoyer), as spelt out in the Foreword of the book by Prof. Krishna (…)

• Grim Warning from Bhopal

  24 April 2007

  It was a massacre of innocents by all counts. What happened at the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal in the early morning of December 3 was not just a tragedy but a heinous crime which killed nearly two thousand and hospitalised many more, it brings out something much more ghastly than the hazards of modern industrialisation.
  The enormity of the crime—unprecedented in our times—lies not merely in any negligence on the part of the workers and superintending staff behind the leakage of the (…)

• North-East and the Act called AFSPA

  24 April 2007

  The North-Eastern region of India comprises several ethnic groups with diverse socio-cultural settings. Since independence, the region is perpetually placed under military rule with the draconian law called Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 [as amended in 1972]. That the intervention by the armed forces is a long-standing and real fact is fairly well known. Today, the state is treating the region’s political struggle and social movements as anti-state, anti-national, disruptive and (…)

• Armed Forces Special Powers Act: Governance by Ballot or Bullet?

  24 April 2007

  There is a growing demand for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) because of public anguish over its misuse by the Army in the “disturbed” States of the North-East and Kashmir. However, the fundamental issue concerns deployment of the Army “in aid of civil power” to control a situation arising from governance failure over decades in those States.
  Role of the Army
  The Army is trained and equipped for its primary role of defence of national boundaries (…)

• Champion of Equity and Justice in International Economic System

  24 April 2007, by Muchkund Dubey

  Tribute
  Dr Surendra J. Patel, an eminent Indian economist and a distinguished international civil servant, passed away in Geneva on December 15, 2006. After receiving his Ph.D degree in Economics from the prestigious Wharton School of Business in the United States, he taught Economics for a brief spell in a local college in Gujarat, his home State. He joined the United Nations service in 1950 and worked in various bodies in the UN Institute for Development Research where he completed his (…)

• Renewing Resolve amid Formidable Challenges

  24 April 2007, by SC

  As Mainstream enters the fortyfifth year of its modest but purposeful existence one is gripped by a feeling of allround depression.
  Today there is a UPA Government at the Centre and it is dependent on its very survival on the crucial support that the Left parties are rendering from outside. But this is being viewed by both the UPA constituents and the supporting parties as merely a matter of expediency. This is completely alien to the holistic vision that Mainstream had projected when (…)