Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Tribute: Subrata Sinha - Passionate Defender of Environment

  6 March 2013, by Sankar Ray

  The passing away of Subrata Sinha, the former Deputy Director General of the Geological Survey of India, on January 19 (born 1932), removes from the midst of down-to-earth environmentalists and earth-scientists an exceptional character for, indeed, he was a personality with exceptional scientific wisdom, an equally strong faith in traditional knowledge and its practitioners at the grassroots, and a delightful sense of humour. This singular quality endeared him to activists, devoted to the (…)

• The Amazing Brazenness of Mahinda Rajapaksa

  6 March 2013, by Apratim Mukarji

  The Sri Lankan Government and the inter-national community are gearing up for a major confrontation in Geneva in March over the alleged human rights violations that had occurred in the final stage of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
  March 15 and 20 are expected to be two vital dates for the future of Sri Lanka. On March 15, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will consider and adopt the final outcome of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Sri (…)

• A Long-term Loss

  6 March 2013

  by Qazi Syed Sajad
  A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation. —James Freeman Clarke, Sermon
  The untimely, tragic and politically surcharged execution of Parliament attack convict Moha-mmad Afzal Guru has genuinely opened the floodgates of viewpoints and speculations. To this writer, it has led to the emergence of a transitional phase in the Indian political system. The larger picture is that the hanging has done a lot of disservice to the country (…)

• Threat to River Ganga and the Life of its Saviour

  6 March 2013, by Madhu Bhaduri

  Since the last two months the attention of the country and the media has focused on the Mahakumbh Mela on the shores of the holy river Ganga. In the meantime the most sincere devotee of the river has silently gone on a hunger strike to draw attention to the betrayal by the state authorities in not keeping their promises and assurances, given from time to time, to keep the river alive and from death at the hands of greedy men in power.
  Professor G.D. Agarwal has been fasting in Amarkantak (…)

• Tribute: Dipankar Chakraborty

  6 March 2013

  by Bishwajit Sen
  He was a democrat to the core of his being. He always gave the “other” voice more importance than his own, even if that meant giving up some of his own preferences. One hardly comes across such a person, in the middle-class milieux, amongst writers, editors or creative persons. It is this which made Dipankar Chakraborty stand apart in a crowd.
  But it does not mean that he faltered while making choices. When the movement against land acquisition erupted in Singur and (…)

• Is Malaysia turning into a Theocratic State?

  6 March 2013, by S.K. Dutta

  Malaysia, a very important country in South-East Asia and a vital member of the ASEAN, is facing a huge turmoil in the last couple of years with the hard-core Islamist fundamentalists hell-bent upon the turning the country into a hard-core Islamist state based on the Shariat with Islam as the state religion. Already there are several provinces in Malaysia which follow the Shariat like Selangor, Penang and others; it is also an accepted reality that Malaysia turned Islamic way back in the (…)

• Present Status of Power Sector in India

  6 March 2013

  by Hiranmoy Roy and Anil Kumar
  The expectations of the power sector from Union Budget 20013-14 must be formed on the basis of its present status. Therefore, an examination of the present status of the power sector is of special importance. The electricity generation capacity in India is the fifth largest in the world. India is also the sixth largest consumer of electricity, and accounts for 3.4 per cent of the global energy consumption. Over the past thirty years, the country’s energy (…)

• New Indian Political Dialogue

  6 March 2013, by Amna Mirza

  The recently concluded Chintan Shivir of the Congress party will be etched in people’s memory for years to come for two reasons: elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party’s Vice-President being the first and his candid speech being the second. The nation witnessed a stellar address at the Congress’ Chintan Shivir. The event began on a note of rethinking and realigning the contours of work of the ruling party. The elevation of Rahul Gandhi to the AICC Vice-President, juxtaposed with his speech, (…)

• The Debate Around Freedom of Expression: Need for Deliberative Democracy in India

  6 March 2013

  by Tamanna Khosla
  The right to freedom of speech as one of the basic human rights is enshrined in the main international human rights documents. Freedom of speech (synonym of freedom of expression) is an inseparable element of a democratic society. Whether the society is democratic or not can be defined by the factor of independent press and mass media. The Constitution of India provides the right to freedom given in Articles 19, 20, 21 and 22, with the view to guaranteeing individual (…)

• Increasing Support for Pension 
Parishad’s Demands

  6 March 2013

  COMMUNICATION
  In recent months the demand for pensions with dignity for all elderly citizens has gathered immense support in India. In the first week of March thousands of elderly citizens from all over the country will be coming to Delhi to strengthen this demand based on the mobilisation effort of the Pension Parishad, an organisation which is leading this exercise.
  To sum-up its demands, the Pension Parishad has urged for setting up a system of pensions which will provide one-half of (…)