Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Unjustified Aggressiveness!

  21 November 2011, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  My attention was drawn to “An Open Letter to the Chief Minister of West Bengal” which was signed by thirty members of the civil society of Kolkata and Delhi. What disturbed me was the tone and tenor of the language used in the letter in denouncing Ms Mamata Banerjee’s bold initiative in inviting the Maoists of Junglemahal for a dialogue after “ceasefire”.
  May I ask with all humility who among the Chief Ministers of the 12 Left-wing extremism-affected States took the initiative in this (…)

• Statement on Peaceful Dialogue in Junglemahal

  21 November 2011

  We, the concerned citizens, feel deeply disturbed by the continued acrimony, tension and violence in the Junglemahal area of West Bengal. After the change of government in the State it was hoped that a dialogue between the new government and the Maoists in the Junglemahal would commence which would address the real problems affecting the people of the area and lead to their solution. This would set an example for dealing with the situation prevailing in the Left-wing extremist affected areas (…)

• A Statement in Neocolonialism

  21 November 2011

  BOOK REVIEW
  by RITA NATH KESHARI
  The Golden Island by Hrusikesh Panda, (English translation: Lipipuspa Nayak); Pakshighar Prakashani; Bhubaneswar; pp. 184; 2011; Rs 200.
  The Golden Island is the English translation of Subarnadweepa, an Odia novel by Hrushikesh Panda, a writer with more than twenty works. The original Odia was published in 1994, the year India went for globalisation of the economy.
  Set in an imaginary tiny country, the Golden Island, the novel trails the sad fate (…)

• I am the Electronic Media

  21 November 2011, by Badri Raina

  America, as you might know, has the Rifle Association. Nobody, but nobody, Republican or Democrat, may touch it. For the reason that the USP of American democracy is that an American citizen, preferably all White, may fire away at any real or imagined threat to the safety of his person or property. The American Constitution, good Republicans think, was drafted with the singular purpose of ensuring this right, both at home and abroad.
  Well, India now has her own answer to this. (…)

• The Alchemy of Change

  21 November 2011, by Uttam Sen

  Several pertinent issues came to the surface in Press Council Chairman Justice Marakandey Katju’s interview with Karan Thapar and its effects, notably well-argued pieces, among them Siddharth Bhatia’s analysis in The Asian Age (“Justice Katju’s remarks not wide of the mark”, November 3, 2011). A tweet said: “Most of the articles opposing Justice Katju’s interview actually end up proving whatever he said about the media…”, for example, a headline wondered “Has Justice Katju been appointed by (…)

• It’s Peak Time in Jails Again—for VIPs: People See it as Justice, and Rejoice

  21 November 2011, by T J S George

  Public anger against corrupt governance has never been as intense as it is today. However, there is also public jubilation as never before. Political VIPs going to jail is an unprecedented spectacle and it fills citizens with unprecedented joy. This is not sadism. This is recognising the sign that there is hope for our country after all.
  When A. Raja went to jail, the general feeling was that the arrogance of his party had invited the punishment. From T. R. Baalu’s days DMK Ministers in (…)

• Hopeful Signs in Regional Setting

  12 November 2011, by SC

  The domestic scenario continues to be grim.
  The Trinamul Congress has not yet carried out its threat of pulling out of the government at the Centre on the issue of petrol price hike (as it is now on the backfoot due to a variety of factors) but its supremo, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, has made it abundantly clear that “one more hike in the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene and we will not stay with this government”.
  Meanwhile the economic blockade of Manipur (…)

• Gaddafi and After — Libya’s Progress

  12 November 2011, by Uttam Sen

  The manner of Muammar al-Gaddafi’s removal was chilling: the faces of his young killers on video recordings mirrored total disdain for their helpless quarry, whose misery was to eventually end with a bullet to the head, according to the purported autopsy report. Time stood still for the products of a treacherous terrain who have witnessed iniquity and retribution in the past, in a tradition that took no prisoners. They could well have been kin of Gaddafi’s own victims. The thought that they (…)

• NATO Settles Down in Libya

  12 November 2011, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organi-sation (NATO) in Libya opens a new chapter in international security. Its so-called Operation Unified Protector (OUP) was shrouded in contro-versy insofar as it unilaterally insisted that its Libyan intervention enjoyed the mandate of the United Nations Security Council, while Russia and China disputed the alliance’s assumption that Resolution 1973 mandated the kinds of activities that the alliance undertook in Libya.
  The way NATO is ending OUP (…)

• Assessing Anna Hazare

  12 November 2011, by P R Dubhashi

  Some, belonging to self-proclaimed progressive circles, characterised Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption and his fast demanding an effective Lok Pal Bill as “a narrow, middle class, upper-caste phenomenon”. The criticism seems wide off the mark. The critics do not seem to be conversant with the life and work of Anna Hazare which, till he burst on the national scene recently, was confined to his native State of Maharashtra. Before launching a diatribe against Anna, they should have (…)