Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• SC Verdict, BJP’s Lokayukta, Mamata-speak

  12 April 2013, by SC

  The Supreme Court’s judgment on Glivec has been hailed by countless poor cancer patients not just in India but the developing world as a whole. This particular drug, used for treating leukaemia, costs a huge sum—$ 1900 (Rs 1,04,500) a month whereas the generic drug produced in India comes to around $ 175 (Rs 9625) a month. The Apex Court’s rejection of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis’ patent application for Glivec means it would no longer be able to charge eleven times more than the (…)

• Search for Gen-next Leadership On - Whom will Pak ISI Bet in Kashmir?

  12 April 2013

  by M.M. Khajooria
  By the end of year 1992, the terrorist storm engulfing Kashmir began to recede. The orgy of senseless blood-letting and ill-concealed criminal designs of ever-mushrooming terror outfits had severely damaged the “crusader” image of the “Mujahids” and made a mockery of the “freedom struggle”. The pro-Azadi JKLF and pro-Pak Hizab ul-Mujahids fought pitched battles in the Kashmir Valley. Secessionist leaders spoke in different voices. Utter confusion prevailed in the (…)

• Aadhaar for Birth, Marriage and Death

  12 April 2013, by S G Vombatkere

  Extant law makes it mandatory for every citizen to formally register births, marriages and deaths in the family. A birth certificate is proof of age and a death certificate is proof that a person has died and, for example, his/her name is to be deleted from a Voter’s List. A marriage certificate shows that a man and a woman are legally married, their living together is socially acceptable and their progeny are legitimate. The civic body recording these events issues birth, marriage and death (…)

• Tripura Votes for CPI-M Again

  12 April 2013, by Barun Das Gupta

  In the State Assembly elections in Tripura held in February, the CPI-M stormed back to power with a huge majority for the fifth time in a row. The result surprised not only the Congress which had taken its victory as a foregone conclusion, but many others as well who had expected that the CPI-M would be either defeated or would win with a very slender majority. In the event it was the CPI-M 49, CPI 1 and Congress 10 in a House of 60. The two electoral allies of the Congress drew blank. (…)

• India and the BRICS Bank Way

  12 April 2013, by Amna Mirza

  The recently concluded fifth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit at Durban this year brought to light new contours of the world order. Held in Africa for the first time, it saw the presence of leaders of state like Dilma Rousseff, Vladimir Putin, Manmohan Singh, Xi Jinping and Jacob Zuma. Alongside deliberations on diplomatic relations, it presented the idea of a BRICS Bank to focus on infrastructure development because of insufficient long-term financing and foreign (…)

• But Didn’t We Know All Along that Italians were More Equal than Us?

  12 April 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  The following piece was written before Italy decided to send back the Marines to India to face trial here. But we are still publishing it as its contents broadly retain their relevance even now.
  Italy is India’s made-for-each-other soulmate. The similarities between the two countries are amazing. Rome, like Mumbai, is home to gifted pickpockets. Italians, like Indians, are chaotic, break traffic rules with pride and always shout at the other fellow for bad driving. Cops (…)

• Italian Marines’ Case: Is India a Soft Nation?

  12 April 2013

  by Hamid Hussain
  The title of this article emanates from an NDTV India debate on March 16 on an identical title in which I participated. This being a serious foreign policy issue, it needed a greater degree of introspection and dissection in the print media. Misdirected economic measures of the UPA Government have led to the slowing down of economic growth, placing its GDP growth rate at merely five per cent—the lowest in the decade. A faulty agricultural policy has resulted in absolute (…)

• Reclaiming the Values for which Bangladesh was Born

  12 April 2013, by Kuldip Nayar

  Dhaka was a distant dot on India’s map when I was living in my home town, Sialkot. Partition pushed me to Delhi and, happily for me, the dot came closer. I took the first plane to Dhaka as soon as it became the capital of the liberated Bangladesh. For the first time, I heard Joi Bangla, a slogan or an invocation, from the weary Bengalis returning home. The airport was littered with luggage and looked disorderly with long queues before the immigration desks. Yet every face was writ with (…)

• Bolsheviks and Death Penalty

  12 April 2013, by Prabhat Patnaik

  COMMUNICATION
  This is with reference to Paresh Chattopadhyay’s (PC’s) response in the March 16 issue of Mainstream to my article “Leninism and Class Consciousness” (originally published in People’s Democracy, January 13, 2013). PC is entitled to his views on Lenin and Leninism, but at the end of his note he accuses me of speaking an untruth (bold in original) in an earlier article in The Telegraph, December 12, 2012, where I had said that the Bolsheviks had abolished the death penalty (…)

• Muslim Right: Baring Its True Fangs!

  12 April 2013, by Subhash Gatade

  This article was written some days ago. There is thus here a reference to a demonstration in Kolkata “to be held on March 30”. However, its contents retain their validity till date. So it is being published now.
  “Any death is regrettable and those who died due to police fire may also come under this category. What is interesting is the Jamaat’s modus operandi. The lone survivor of the December 14 mass murder of intellectuals described in a recent TV documentary how Al Badr killed Prof (…)