Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Left at the Crossroads

  13 April 2012, by Kripa Shankar

  The tragedy of the communist movement in India has been that it wholly depended on the Soviet Union for guidance and considered any directive from it as the last wisdom which could not but be accepted as a religious tenet. The Soviet Union was only pursuing policies in its own interest and had nothing to do with promoting revolution in other countries but the Communists were made to believe otherwise.
  When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union it asked the Indian Communists to support (…)

• Chhattisgarh’s Wandering Tribes: Problems of IDPs on the Chhattisgarh-AP border

  13 April 2012

  by MEDHA CHATURVEDI
  Intense violence in Left Wing Extremism affected States has left hordes of local people homeless. The problem of internally displaced people within the Red Corridor is most acute in the areas falling on the Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh border. Why is this exodus happening? What is the situation of these IDPs in Andhra Pradesh? Are they facing any problems or pressure from the Andhra Pradesh Government to return? What is the Government of Chhattisgarh doing about this? (…)

• How Many Indians Are Poor?

  13 April 2012

  by SANTOSH KUMAR MOHA PATRA
  After more than six decades of independence, India is still groping in the dark in search of a realistic definition of what constitutes poverty and how many Indians are actually poor? Successive governments have tweaked the definition of poverty and fiddled with numbers to suit the political dispensation. The poverty data released by the Planning Commission recently, based on the 66th round of the National Sample Survey (2009-10) figures on household consumer (…)

• All India March to Parliament by SUCI (C)

  13 April 2012

  Under the auspices of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), a massive People’s March to Parliament was held on March 14 in New Delhi with the participation of nearly one lakh people from all over the country.
  Raising slogans demanding an end to all anti-people policies of the government and solutions for the tormenting conditions of people’s life due to back-breaking price-rise, limitless corruption etc. those who poured into New Delhi to participate in this protest rally (…)

• Silver Lining

  2 April 2012, by SC

  Problems and crises don’t seem to leave the ruling United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre. The Army Chief, General V.K. Singh, has been regularly coming out with startling revelations and taking steps causing huge embarrassment for the government in general and Defence Minister A.K. Antony in particular. First came the alleged offer of a Rs 14-crore bribe for the purchase of trucks made a year-and-a-half ago and the Army attributed the offer to General Singh’s former colleague, (…)

• Nuclear Energy and Rutherford-Szilard Episode

  2 April 2012

  COMMUNICATION
  As soon as Mainstream’s March 17, 2012 issue reached Kolkata, I received two phone calls from my two esteemed friends enquiring about the source of my information about the Rutherford-Szilard episode. (‘UN Must Outlaw Nuclear Power Plants’ by Sailendra Nath Ghosh, Mainstream, March 17, 2012)
  My source is the book by Edward Teller, the maker of Hydrogen Bomb. In this book, Energy from Heaven and Earth, in chapter 8, under the heading “The Beginnings of Atomic Energy”, he (…)

• Fourth BRICS Summit: Delhi Declaration

  2 April 2012

  DOCUMENT
  The following is the text of the Delhi Declaration issued by the Fourth BRICS Summit attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Presidents Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Hu Jintao of China and Jacob Zuma of South Africa in the Indian Capital on March 29, 2012: 1. We, the leaders of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the Republic of India, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, met in New Delhi, India, on (…)

• The Writing on the Wall

  2 April 2012, by Era Sezhiyan

  The Congress should see the message that stands out in the form of the Assembly election results, on the portents it holds.
  Addressing the media on March 7, a day after the results of the five Assembly elections were announced, Congress President Sonia Gandhi attributed the outcome against the party to “wrong candidates, organisational weaknesses, party members not taking serious responsibilities, and too many leaders in the party”. Further, she observed that the electoral rever-ses would (…)

• Time for Kashmir Solution

  2 April 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  There was a time when any statement on Kashmir, either by the Prime Minister of India or that of Pakistan, used to create rumpus. Politicians and the media on both sides would dwell on for several days on what a particular remark tried to convey. Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani said the other day that his country would seek a solution on Kashmir through a dialogue, no hostilities. I have not seen any comment in India nor have I found any Pakistani Opposition leaders or the press (…)

• Union Budget 2012-13: The Well-to-do Must Tighten their Belts

  2 April 2012

  by PANNALAL SURANA
  “Great burden put on the people”—was the shrill cry of the electronic media after the Budget for 2012-13 was presented to Parliament. And what was repeated umpteen times? The A/c travel has become costlier, cigarettes, drinks, eating out etc. have become dearer. The gold and silver traders all over the country declared a hartal for three days in protest against the two per cent increase in the service tax.
  All that is really amusing, if not exasperating.
  One may (…)