Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Recalling 9/11 in US and 2002 in Gujarat

  23 September 2011, by SC

  The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the United States was befittingly observed on September 11 this year with the leaders of the country, headed by President Barack Obama, poignantly dedicating at New York’s Ground Zero, where 10 years ago stood the Twin Towers, an appropriate memorial to the 2749 persons who perished there in the worst terror attack in the citadel of the industrialised West. The families of the dead gathered not only at Ground Zero but also in Washington (…)

• Indo-Bangladesh Relations — Failure of Leadership on the Indian Side

  23 September 2011, by Muchkund Dubey

  The attitude of most of Indian political leaders, senior officials, business magnates and strategic thinkers towards Bangladesh has been one of disdain and apathy. Very few of these people either understand the dynamics of the domestic politics of Bangladesh or have grasped the full import of Indo-Bangladesh relations. The most glaring example recently of the abysmal ignorance of Bangladesh’s politics was the Indian Prime Minister’s remark towards the end of June 2011 that 25 per cent of the (…)

• UID Aadhaar as if People Matter

  23 September 2011, by S G Vombatkere

  Media Reports
  The UID Aadhaar project planning and system design shortcomings and security risks at the national (or macro) level have been discussed elsewhere.1 The present article views the Aadhaar project at the system operational level, with practical considerations based on observed and probable functioning at the service delivery end.
  Consider the following report in a local daily, The Mysore Bugle:
  Food riots: PDS outlet vandalised
  Mysore: August 2, 2015—The PDS outlet in (…)

• Rahul Gandhi Needs to Learn from Mahatma Gandhi’s Precepts

  23 September 2011, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  PEOPLE ARE SUPREME: PARLIAMENT MUST WORK UNDER PEOPLE’S PRESSURE
  Last fortnight, despite countrywide popular support for Anna Hazare’s Jana Lokpal demand, some MPs of the ruling coalition started saying that Parliament is supreme, that parliamentary procedures cannot be shortened or expedited to meet emergencies and that trying to do this would mean undermining the democratic process. According to newspaper reports, “Rahul Gandhi underscored the supremacy of Parliament over street (…)

• Reading Anna’s Politics of Anti-politics

  23 September 2011

  by ARUP SEN
  The eminent political philosopher, Giorgio Agamben, drew our attention to the “protracted eclipse” of politics today. This happens, argued Agamben, because “politics” failed to confront the transformations that gradually “emptied out its categories and concepts”.1
  Many political commentators have recently raised questions about the legitimacy of parliamentary politics in India in the context of the Anna Hazare movement. Pratap Bhanu Mehta argues that the singular achievement (…)

• Corruption: the Great Political Divide

  23 September 2011

  by V.P. JAIN
  We are corrupt. Corruption is deeply entrenched and it has become institutionalised. ‘Corruption has become endemic to the system and it has to be fought.’ This has become a constant refrain. Then what is the current turmoil about and where is the catch?
  The problem is very simple: It does not affect everybody in the same way. It is creating an asymmetrical society. On the one hand, we have the beneficiaries of the corrupt system, the big business houses, the politicians, (…)

• The Neoliberal Revolution

  23 September 2011, by Anand Teltumbde

  Expectedly, the high-pitched media-supported Anna anshan at the Ramlila Ground has come to an end with Parliament passing a unanimous resolution as dictated by Team Anna. The three conditions—that the lower bureaucracy should be within the Lokpal’s ambit, Lokayuktas in States should be brought in through a Central legislation like the Lokpal’s, and a citizen’s charter detailing the responsibilities of government functionaries and the penalty for non-fulfilment should be instituted—were (…)

• Rural Innovator Struggles For Justice

  23 September 2011, by Bharat Dogra

  A rural scientist, Mangal Singh, has received a patent for an innovation (Mangal Turbine) which can save billions of rupees worth diesel and electricity currently used up for irrigation. Despite the recognition of his work by eminent experts and officials, this scientist has been subjected to relentless harassment by a handful of bureaucrats. A recent evaluation of his work ordered by the Department of Rural Department has indicted these bureaucrats while strongly recommending that Mangal (…)

• Leftwing Militant Radicalism, State and Civil Society

  23 September 2011, by K B Saxena

  The following is a detailed report of a seminar on "Militant Left Radicalism, State and Civil Society: the Centrality of Tribal Land Rights” that was organied by the Council for Social Development, New Delhi in the Capital on December 10-11, 2010. The keynote address of distinguished social anthropologist Prof B.K. Ray Burman was published in Mainstream Annual 2010 (dated December 25, 2010). Since the issues discussed at the seminar are highly topical in the present context, this piece is (…)

• How Deep is the Rot?

  23 September 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  Bihar and Uttar Pradesh together have long been regarded as the traditional homeland of the Congress. These two States together constitute an almost overwhelming bloc in Parliament, and all the Prime Ministers of India but one have come from Uttar Pradesh. The Central Ministers from this region easily outnumber those from any other region; inevitably this has been most conspicuous under the Congress than under the Janata Raj.
  It is therefore natural to regard these (…)