Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Manmohan, Chidambaram Responsible for 2G Scam: Gurudas Dasgupta

  14 October 2013

  by Kuldip Singh Arora
  Armed with facts and documents, member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G spectrum Gurudas Dasgupta on September 28, 2013 dissented with the Committee’s draft report, which gave a clean-chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, and said that this was a fraudulent and dishonest attempt at cover-up, exonerating these people and throwing all guilt on A. Raja, the then Telecom Minister.
  “Raja of course is the villain of (…)

• There are Times when War is Better than Our Free and Fair Elections

  14 October 2013, by T J S George

  What if Hastinapura were a democracy? All the turmoil about giving half the kingdom to the Pandavas could have been avoided and the matter settled through free and fair elections. The minor irritations of democracy would have persisted—like Duryodhana putting in a fib or two in his affidavit to the Election Commission. But he couldn’t have gone too far. Any attempt to hide his net assets or pending criminal cases would have been exposed by the Crimes Wow news channel with its insider hold on (…)

• Signs of Disquiet

  14 October 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  New Delhi’s latest extravaganza is the all-in wrestling match between the President versus the Prime Minister, now being played with their respective supporters backing them with gusto.
  But those who are not directly involved in this unseemly game are disturbed by the crisis situation created by this development. This confrontation that now looms large between the President and the Prime Minister has been building up for nearly two years now: what is amazing is that (…)

• Losing Freedom to the Corporate Hawks

  14 October 2013, by Suranjita Ray

  The government campaigns for the future prospects of Bt cotton1 to boost India’s economy as it is the second largest exporter of cotton. The recent statement in the Lok Sabha on the success story of Bt cotton and call for a ‘sensitive approach’ to Genetically Modified (GM) crops by Sharad Pawar, the Union Minister of Agriculture, has once again raised suspicion about the intents of the UPA II Government. Despite the Reports of the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Agriculture and the (…)

• Olive Oil and the Supermom—Feminism and the Conspicuous Consumption Challenge

  14 October 2013

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  by Shruti Chopra
  The singular inability of India’s feminist movement to decrypt the coded messages tucked into the aggressive marketing campaigns of giant corporates pushing products and services of subjective “goodness” is bothersome. At one level it implies that the gains achieved by the previous generation of feminists have been frittered away. Since the 1920s, a mix of feminism and feminist-consumerism, which originated in the United States, has inspired Indian (…)

• Competition for Inefficiency: An Indian Perspective

  14 October 2013

  by Abhishek Kumar and Sreekutty Mohandas
  The 1980s were a decade of memorable incidents for the world in general and India in particular. The efficiency of the market economy, propagated by Thatcher and Reagan, was receiving immense political popularity and around the same time Eugene Fama’s efficient market hypothesis received rave academic acceptance. Margaret Thatcher popularised the idea of TINA (There Is No Alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary (…)

• A Gorkhaland State: How Justified?

  14 October 2013

  by Saumitra Mohan
  At a time when the Indian economy is in a tailspin with the rupee maintaining a sustained southward penchant to Newtonian forces, it is really quite disturbing and disconcerting to see some dormant Statehood movements rearing their heads in the wake of the recent decision to form a new Telangana State through division of the extant State of Andhra Pradesh. Such demands inter alia include demands for a separate State of Gorkhaland (comprising Darjeeling and the adjoining (…)

• Was a New State Justified?

  14 October 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  Apparently, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who okayed the creation of Telangana for formal decision by the Union Cabinet, did not anticipate angry reaction of the rest of Andhra, called Seemandhra. When there is blackout, no water supply, no transport, no fuel and powerless mobiles, the mood in Seemandhra is that of now or never.
  The Centre could have gauged the sentiment by proceeding with what the Constitution says. It is laid down that the State Assembly should be consulted. True, in (…)

• On Prof G.D. Aggarwal’s Indefinite Fast

  14 October 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  At the time of writing this, Prof G.D. Aggarwal has completed 105 days of his indefinite fast to protect the Ganga river in the Himalyan region from indiscriminate construction of dams. Without necessarily agreeing with all that this venerable saint-cum-scientist (now called Swami Saanand) has said, his great commitment to checking indiscriminate construction of hydel projects on Ganga river in Himalayan region should be widely supported.
  In this context I would also like (…)

• Russian Proposal enjoys Global Support to the Chagrin of Warmongers

  14 October 2013, by Benjamin Todd

  Syria Russia’s proposal to bring Syrian chemical weapons under control has been supported by the international community and several countries precisely because it has been regarded as a viable alternative to the US’ military project. The implementation of this proposal would help avoid the spread of the conflict in West Asia—a scenario too horrendous to even imagine for most of the states which wholeheartedly oppose such an outcome so as to prevent it from becoming a reality. Russia’s (…)