Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Will Deng’s Gimmick Pass?

  1 October 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Democracy has gone so berserk in India that there are serious people who think a dose of dictatorship would be good for the country. In such a situation it may be difficult for us to grasp how things are in China where the economy has opened up but politics has remained closed. Which is like opening the windows of a house and asking folks at home not to look outside. The news is that a whole lot of people are looking outside and raising demands for a whole lot of things, and (…)

• Vanzara, Asaram, Concert in Kashmir

  1 October 2013, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  This piece was sent to us sometime ago but could not be used earlier because of space constraints.
  Modi getting nailed by his own men. Yes, encounter specialist D.G. Vanzara’s resignation letter from the IPS, could stand as a major obstacle in Modi’s march towards New Delhi or London or even further. So, at long last this jailed murderer cop’s conscience seems revolting, he is out with those horrifying details of getting used by politicians: Modi, Amit Shah and several more… It (…)

• On Shahid Bhagat Singh

  1 October 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  As per recent reports, a member of Shahid Bhagat Singh’s family has invited Narendra Modi to release Bhagat Singh’s diary. Kindly allow me to point out that several members of Bhagat Singh’s family have opposed this. The greatest contribution to presenting and dissemi-nating Shahid Bhagat Singh’s ideas in Hindi as well as in Punjabi has been made by Prof Jagmohan Singh, a nephew of Shahid Bhagat Singh. Jagmohan Singh has firmly opposed any move to invite Modi to release (…)

• Rethinking World Order

  1 October 2013, by Sunita Samal

  Introduction
  The term ‘new world order’ has been used to refer to any new period of history bearing testimony to a dramatic change in world politics and economics and sociology. Despite various interpretations of the term, it is primarily associated with the ideological notion of global governance in the sense of identity which addresses worldwide problems that are beyond the capacity of individual nation-states to solve.1 In Benedict Anderson’s notion, a nation is an imagined political (…)

• Silver Lining

  22 September 2013, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  Last Friday, that is, on September 13, all the four accused—who were found guilty of a criminal conspiracy to gang-rape, murder and commit unnatural sex on the 23-year-old physiotherapy student, subsequently described by the media as ‘Nirbhaya’ or ‘Damini’, in New Delhi on December 16, 2012—were sentenced to death by a fast-track court in the Capital. The court asserted that since the “gravity of the incident depicts the hair-raising beastly and unparalleled behaviour” it (the (…)

• Kerry becomes first War Casualty

  22 September 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  This article was written before the attack on Syria was deferred in view of the Russian initiative, in response to Kerry’s suggestion, on the table. Launching the military attack against a far-away country in real slow motion is not an easy thing to do and the most taxing part of the diplomatic acrobatics by the United States as it embarks on the strikes against Syria is to be borne by Secretary of State John Kerry.
  The strain is beginning to show. It seems certain now that Kerry will (…)

• The Problem of Kashmir

  22 September 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  Zubin Mehta, before leaving for Srinagar to conduct his orchestra, said: “There will be no violence.” German Ambassador Michael Steiner, who facilitated the concert, said at Srinagar that the world was watching Kashmir. Both observations have a ring of truth. The success of the concert has proved that.
  If New Delhi has been able to put across a message, the Hurriyat leaders have to blame themselves. They, also known as the separatists, unnecessarily made the concert an issue by playing (…)

• India Facing Economic Emergency

  22 September 2013

  by Pranjit Agarwala
  India is facing an economic emergency with the free fall of the rupee and a high rate of food and fuel inflation despite comparative stability in the global crude oil and commodity markets. Fluctuations in the international currency markets are quite common and any excess volatility is normally absorbed by the economy’s inherent structural checks and balances. But the Indian economy’s built-in course corrections, necessary in a globalised economy, are apparently weak (…)

• Modi’s ’Vanzara’ Moment: Encounter Killings as State Policy?

  22 September 2013, by Subhash Gatade

  This article was written before the BJP leadership formally decided to make Narendra Modi its prime ministerial candidate.
  Resignation letters of suspended officers—who are in jail under serious charges—are never a cause of concern for the powers that be. But with Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara, the suspended DIG of the Gujarat Police and head of its Anti-Terrorist Squad, who once happened to be very close to the powers that be and has the potential of further embarrassing them, the situation is (…)

• Letter from Germany: Social Democrats Face a Tough Task in the Federal Elections

  22 September 2013

  by Arani Basu
  This article reached us sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons.
  With federal elections round the corner, it is a matter of concern for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) if the next government in Germany would be able to save the country from financial crisis—a malice gone viral all over Europe. Economically stability therefore is undoubtedly the biggest deciding factor when it comes to analysing this year’s (…)