Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Spirit of Federalism in India: The Need for NCTC

  13 May 2012

  by TAMANNA KHOSLA
  Federalism requires that States need to be given equal respect and powers as provided by the Constitution of India. In any kind of consultation States need to be involved in any kind of dialogue. Dialogue and deliberation between the Centre and States are a must in a federal democratic set-up. However there has been lot of controversy revolving around the formation of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre. Federalism in this case has been in a flux to deal with the (…)

• Maldevelopment – Its Sustainable Alternative for India

  13 May 2012, by Subrata Sinha

  This piece was sent sometime ago but could not be used earlier for unavoidable reasons.
  Facing the double whammy of climate change and its affluent society-triggered dwindling non-renewable resources, the Indian energy policy is at crossroads! The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear calamity is leading to a global moratorium on nuclear energy. Japan apart, Europe has opted out of new nuclear power plants. Germany has shut down half its reactors and decided to shut down all by 2022, while the USA has (…)

• Who Am I?

  13 May 2012, by Gladson Dungdung

  An emerging human rights organisation of Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Human Rights Movement, has released the first “Jharkhand Human Rights Report 2001-2011”, which was welcomed from all corners of the society. However, I was just checking to know the reason of the absence of some human rights activists at the report release function held in Ranchi on March 10, 2012. While responding to my queries, one of the noted human rights activists of the State told me: “You have written a lot against us (…)

• Signs of Panic

  13 May 2012, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  On July 27, the Congress-I Working Committee was called by the party President, Rajiv Gandhi, and it adopted, among other things, a resolution on the political situation.
  What was strange was that this ten-para one-thousand-word document, claiming to reflect the ruling party’s views on the present situation, had no reference at all to the crisis in Punjab or to the serious developments in Kashmir, not to speak of the Bodo or the Jharkand agitations. There is a (…)

• V.P. Singh and Bofors

  13 May 2012

  With the Swedish ‘Deep Throat’, who brought out the Bofors kickbacks issue through his exchange of valuable information with investigative journalist Chitra Subramaniam-Duella, having decided to identify himself 25 years after the scandal emerged in press reports (he is none other than former Swedish Police head Sten Lindstrom), Bofors has resurfaced in the public domain. In this context we are reproducing what an elder statesman, C. Subramaniam, who held both Finance and Defence portfolios (…)

• Remembering Gujarat Carnage of 2002: Professor Hiren Mukerjee’s letter to President K.R. Narayanan and the President’s Anguish

  13 May 2012

  On the tenth anniversary of the Gujarat carnage, we reproduce here page 5 of Mainstream (May 4, 2002).
  Save the Conscience and Honour of Our India
  PROFESSOR HIREN MUKERJEE’S FERVENT APPEAL TO THE PRESIDENT
  Following is the text of Professor Hiren Mukerjee’s letter to President K.R. Narayanan dated April 21, 2002.
  Dear Mr President,
  I write this to you not so much as a dear friend and young brother but, with a certain solemnity, as President of our Republic of India. The horrendous (…)

• Renewed Bofors Storm in Parliament

  1 May 2012, by SC

  Some major developments—release of abducted MLA Jhina Hikaka by Maoists after 32 days in their captivity, the conviction and symbolic sentence of Pakistan PM Yusuf Reza Gilani by the country’s highest court, and India’s successful test-firing of its heaviest remote-sensing satellite RISAT 1—took place in the course of the day today.
  But the most striking event of the day was the renewed Bofors storm in Parliament. The Opposition urged for a fresh probe into the allegation of Rs 60-crore (…)

• With a Feared but Clueless High Command, Congress is Dying. Look at the South

  1 May 2012, by T J S George

  Victory in the Delhi municipal elections has filled the BJP with ecstasy. Actually the significance of this election lies not in the BJP’s success but in the Congress’ rout. The once-great party has been reminded yet again that it is in a nosedive with no one, on present reckoning, capable of pulling it up.
  To understand how serious is the comatose condition of the Congress, we must look beyond Delhi and UP to the South. This was the citadel of the Congress. Indira Gandhi herself needed (…)

• Rational National Security: Mechanism for Defence Preparedness and National Security

  30 April 2012, by S G Vombatkere

  Start Point
  It was recently reported that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (PSCD) has summoned the three defence service Chiefs “to seek their views on the state of defence preparedness pointed out by Army Chief General V. K. Singh in his leaked letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh” as they “needed to examine the whole spectrum of defence preparedness”. [Ref. 1] This is a very heartening news, even though the concern was triggered by the leaked contents of General V.K. (…)

• Arab Spring — Implications for the United States

  30 April 2012

  by SALEEM KIDWAI
  The wave of pro-democracy protests witnessed recently has fundamentally transformed the political dynamics of the Arab world. The push for representative democracy is irreversible and it would be unwise to try and impede it. The current political scenario in West Asia is prima-rily driven by internal realities, but it is also a reflection of past US policy choices not to support democratic reforms. Throughout the region, the US actively supported autocratic regimes and (…)