Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Rapid Spread of Liquor Vends Increases Violence against Women

  18 May 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  While various aspects of violence against women have been widely discussed in recent times, one very significant reason for the worsening of this problem has not received the necessary attention. The reference here is to the rapid proliferation of liquor vends in most parts of the country, reaching even remote villages. Social activists and women’s organisations have repeatedly warned that this, apart from causing many other problems, is increasing the insecurity of women and (…)

• Congress Wrests Power in Karnataka

  11 May 2013, by SC

  The results of the Karnataka Assembly polls are out: the BJP has suffered a rout losing power in the only State of South India where it had struck deep roots. The Congress has registered a comprehensive victory securing as many as 121 seats in the 224-member House thus setting to rest all doubts that it may fall short of a simple majority of 113. The BJP secured only 40 seats—the same as the tally of the JD(S)—as against 110 it had won in the 2008 election; at the same time its voteshare (…)

• On SC’s Plainspeak, Fresh Revelations

  11 May 2013

  COMMENTARY
  The Supreme Court has come out with several strictures against the CBI and PMO on May 8 while charging the UPA Government with having changed the ‘heart of the report’ on the investigation into the coal scam. In this situation the continuance of the Union Law Minister, Ashwani Kumar, in his post has become untenable even as the PM is backing him to the hilt. As we go to press, it is learnt that the Congress is getting ready to have him removed despite the PM’s insistence on (…)

• Supreme Court Judgment on Kudankulam Plant Needs Full-bench Review

  11 May 2013, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  COMMENTARY
  Observer
  The judgment delivered on May 6 (2013) by a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court is shocking and anti-people. Unless the full-Bench of the Supreme Court hastens to correct it, it will lower the prestige of our Supreme Court in the eyes of the world.
  The following questions need to be addressed: Who, for what purpose, filed the PIL on the Kudankulam nuclear plant before the Supreme Court? Is the Supreme Court endowed with superior know-ledge about nuclear plants? (…)

• Human Rights Activists and Death Penalty

  11 May 2013, by Rajindar Sachar

  The morality of death penalty has again come to the forefront by the latest Supreme Court judgment rejecting Bhullar’s plea for mercy. I am against death penalty as such for anyone. But politicians like Badal, Karunanidhi, Jaya-lalithaa only invoke mercy to suit their political exigencies.
  Badal obviously is feeling pressurised by the SGPC and extremist elements in the Akali Dal—if not, then why does he not also ask for mercy for all prisoners on the death-roll? If Badal is genuine and his (…)

• Quiet Changeover in Karnataka?

  11 May 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  The acquittal of Sajjan Kumar, a Congress leader from Delhi, was bound to create a furore because he has come to symbolise the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Even though 29 years have lapsed since the killings, the anger has not lessened because the demand by the Sikhs to punish the guilty has not been met. Some way would have to be found to allay their hurt.
  When the Blacks and Whites were at the point of clash in South Africa, a Commission for Law and Reconciliation was appointed. The purpose (…)

• Karnataka lies Wounded by Corruption, Communalism; Voters are Helpless

  11 May 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Karnataka votes today. If this election is different from previous ones, it is because the tragedy that has overtaken the State stands out more starkly today than before. Led by some wise leaders and legendary administrators, Karnataka had become famous for its pro-gressive pace. Decline set in with the 1975 Emer-gency, developing rapidly into decay and then ruin.
  All parties contributed to this process of destruction and that is why a change of parties will not alter the (…)

• Chanakya and Machiavelli Rolled into One

  11 May 2013, by Badri Raina

  This piece was written quite sometime ago. It is being published now as it still retains its relevance.
  Epigraph
  I have no spur
  To prick the sides of my intent, but only
  Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself
  And falls on th’other —
  (Macbeth, I,vii)
  “Intent” you will see is the horse that Macbeth wishes to ride to the glory of the Scottish throne. And the only spur he has to race that horse is his “ambition”. Wretchedly, he recognises this to be a “vaulting” ambition, and as (…)

• Pakistan: Reporter’s Jottings

  11 May 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  A week’s trip to Pakistan to attend a workshop on South Asian problems—part of the emerging people-to-people movement—may not have been adequate to get a comprehensive view of Pakistan’s problems and prospects, but it did provide an insight into many facets of life in Pakistan today which is valuable for a reporter’s notebook.
  Kashmir is the talking point in almost every circle one meets, much more than what the present writer noted during his last visit there to (…)

• India’s (non-)Response in Ladakh

  11 May 2013, by Barun Das Gupta

  Regulars of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China intruded ten kms deep into Indian territory in the Daulat Beg Oldi sector in eastern Ladakh on April 14/15. (Actually there is some confusion about it. There are reports that the Chinese entered 19 kms south of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and then retreated to their present position, 10 kms inside.) Our government came to know of this intrusion, it is reported, from aerial pictures. For ten or fifteen or twenty, whatever kms it is, (…)