Mainstream Weekly

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• The Time Has Come, Warns Mamata | TJS George

  20 August 2021, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  What is Mamata Banerjee up to? That she is unlike any other chief minister is obvious. While others are confined to their respective states, Mamata stands out as a leader with an all-India profile. Every time she visits Delhi, there is speculation about a national coalition taking shape. On one visit she said that regional parties should lead the nation. Next time Narendra Modi fights elections, she said, it will be against a coalition that represents the country. "It (…)

• Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks | Arup Kumar Sen

  20 August 2021, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Very recently, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has published a book, documenting Sudha Bharadwaj’s ‘Life in Law and Activism’ (A Life in Law and Activism: Sudha Bharadwaj Speaks, January 2021). While narrating the life struggle of Bharadwaj, Arvind Narrain, the editor of the book, observed: “...Sudha Bharadwaj’s life, which combined being a lawyer, an activist and an academic, was interrupted by her arrest. She was detained on 28 August 2018, under provisions of the UAPA...and (…)

• Coronacapitalism: Reverse the Reset | Kobad Ghandy (Part A)

  20 August 2021, by Kobad Ghandy

  This article seeks to give a reply to the World Economic Forum’s CEO, Klaus Schwab’s recent book : Covid -19: The Great Reset and his dystopian agenda. The article is divided into five parts:
  Here we are publishing the first three parts the last two will come in the next issue
  Coronacapitalism: Reverse the Reset
  (1) The Great Recession & The rise of China
  (i) Post WWII: Cycles of Crises
  (ii) Enter the Dragon
  (iii) (…)

• The Taliban says it will respect women. But we Iranians have seen this movie before | Masih Alinejad

  20 August 2021

  by Masih Alinejad *
  August 19, 2021
  On Tuesday, the Taliban held a news conference in Kabul. Its spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, bent over backward to reassure the international community of the group’s benign intentions. He promised an inclusive government, hinted at elections and declared that today’s Taliban has changed considerably since it lost its grip on power 20 years ago. He insisted that the new Taliban government will protect freedom of speech, human rights and women’s rights — (…)

• Malala: I Survived the Taliban. I Fear for My Afghan Sisters.

  20 August 2021

  by Malala Yousafzai
  In the last two decades, millions of Afghan women and girls received an education. Now the future they were promised is dangerously close to slipping away. The Taliban who until losing power 20 years ago barred nearly all girls and women from attending school and doled out harsh punishment to those who defied them are back in control. Like many women, I fear for my Afghan sisters.
  I cannot help but think of my own childhood. When the Taliban took over my hometown in (…)

• CIA’s turn to tell the truth on Afghanistan | Jawed Naqvi

  20 August 2021, by Jawed Naqvi

  As far as the Afghan Taliban’s fanaticism is concerned, together with their overwhelming military superiority rooted in trademark guerrilla tactics, there ought to be no surprises at the brigands’ return to Kabul with commanding ease. It is also not a huge surprise that the US spilled unimaginable quantities of blood and money in the 20 years of its occupation of the landlocked impoverished nation with precious little to show for it.
  The savagery showcased the nature of the beast for both (…)

• Reflections on Events in Afghanistan | M K Bhadrakumar

  20 August 2021, by M K Bhadrakumar

  ( August 16-17, 2021)
  1. Collapse of the Afghan Army
  Social media reported that at the Kabul residence of the Afghan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib who post-haste fled to Tajikistan on Saturday with President Ashraf Ghani, three Toyota Landcruiser SUVs were found stacked with American dollar bills.
  Mohib was the shadow king of Afghanistan. He controlled the country’s defence budget. In the coming year, he would have handled over $3 billion, which the US has earmarked as (…)

• Taliban and Al Qaeda: Putting a fox in charge of the chicken coop? | James M. Dorsey

  20 August 2021

  by James M. Dorsey*
  August 19, 2021 Abu Omar Khorasani was taken from Kabul’s Pul-i-Charkhi prison and unceremoniously shot.
  The first and only person to have been executed since the Taliban gained full control of Afghanistan, Mr. Khorasani was the head of the Islamic State in South Asia until he was arrested by government forces last year.
  The precise circumstances of his execution are not known. His killing was, however, at least in part designed to send a message to the (…)

• Who Will Heal the Wounds of Afghanistan? | Bharat Dogra

  20 August 2021, by Bharat Dogra

  The Taliban have quickly received support from Pakistan and China , to some extent even from Iran and Russia, and apppear set to take control of Afghanistan with the recognition by at least about five or six countries to start with. In their first meeting with the press they have sought to partly reduce the widespread fears regarding their support for terrorist activities aimed at other countries and regarding their oppressive attitude towards women, particulrly professional women. Only (…)

• India in world affairs during last 74 years | P S Jayaramu

  20 August 2021

  by P. S. Jayaramu
  ( 16th August, 2021)
  India has entered the 75th year of it’s independence and it is a proud moment for us, though it is not a long time in a nation’s history. An attempt is made here to reflect on the role played by India in world affairs.
  In a way, India’s role in international affairs preceded its independence. The Indian National Congress (INC) which led the freedom movement, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi had a cell devoted to foreign affairs. It was (…)