Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Delhi Bleeds as Terror Strikes Again

  13 September 2011, by SC

  Terror has struck the heart of the Capital—just outside the Delhi High Court. Delhi has bled once again while the custodians of law and order continue to repeat, like an old gramophone record, what they had said time and again after every bomb blast causing countless casualties. The leaders of the government too have used the same language that they employ in such incidents—and that boils down to “we shall not bow to such cowardly acts and definitely bring the perpetrators to book”. But what (…)

• PM’s Productive Dhaka Visit

  13 September 2011

  COMMENTARY
  The first visit of an Indian PM to Bangladesh in 12 years has doubtless been a major success despite the fact that the Teesta water-sharing deal could not be inked (due to the West Bengal CM’s veto—in deference to that State’s interests—on the details worked out in the proposed draft agreement) and the transit issue (which involves overland access for Indian goods across Bangladeshi territory to the landlocked North-Eastern States) still needs to be resolved. In fact what has (…)

• Why We Oppose Biotechnology Regulation Bill

  13 September 2011, by Bharat Dogra

  The Union Government has prepared the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2001 (BRAI in brief) for the regulation of the biotechnology sector in India. While the need for strong and careful regulation certainly exists keeping in view the serious threats posed to health and environment by the genetically modified (GM) crops, the BRAI can actually increase this threat by paving the way for the rapid spread of GM crops (or their field-trials) and this is the reason why it is being (…)

• Non-violence is Mightier than Violence

  13 September 2011

  by ANAND MUTTUNGAL
  The thirteen-day-long non-violent protest led by Anna Hazare has again proved that non-violence has an upper hand against violence. Non-violence can be understood in two ways: the first is a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle and the second is the behaviour of people using non-violent action to attain a systematic transformation. The general version of non-violence became a pragmatic approach with the application of (…)

• Electoral Reform — Will The Central Government Redeem Itself?

  13 September 2011, by Rajindar Sachar

  When Anna Hazare gave up his fast, he announced that the next movement is for electoral reform and especially prioritised the right to reject a candidate at the elections and the right to recall a legislator earlier than the end of his term.
  The Central Government is seeking to project itself as responsive to public opinion. Here then is an opportunity to do so. I say this because the public demand for effectuating the right to reject vote or more clearly “None of the Above” (NOTA) is (…)

• Debating Anna Hazare

  13 September 2011

  On August 27, 2011, The Telegraph newspaper published an article on Anna Hazare by Ramachandra Guha under the title “A Patriarch for the Nation”. The article sparked a debate between the author and the social worker, Lalit Uniyal. The debate is reproduced below for several reasons. The dialogue is without artifice; it grew naturally. Marxists might perceive an instance of the dialectic in operation, thesis to synthesis. Younger scholars might discover a model of courtesy in debate. And, (…)

• Some Disturbing Thoughts

  13 September 2011, by Humra Quraishi

  Jolt for the government of the day. Rattled it is. Perhaps, trying its best to avoid a full fledged uprising to take off, much in keeping with what was witnessed at Egypt’s Tahrir Square. And here, as the build-up seems simmering, isn’t it time to grasp and sense the rather obvious political shades gathering around this momentum. There’s that lurking danger of political lobbies intruding and puncturing the very purpose. Also, whether three drafts are presented (the government’s, Team Anna’s (…)

• Why Anger Against Civil Society?

  13 September 2011

  by A.K. VERMA
  That the government should have turned down Team Anna’s draft on the Lokpal Bill and pushed him to protest is quite understandable. Anna’s desire to fast at Jantar Mantar, and the government’s pre-empting the same by imposing Section 144 all over Delhi, and suggesting some insignificant place for the fast with ceiling on the number of people who can join the fast was a clear indication of some panic driven anger on the part of the government. But, should the government show (…)

• Allround Decadence and Ray of Hope

  13 September 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  While there is no doubt a lot on which to attack those in authority for their dereliction in running an orderly system of governance, one has to ask at the same time why there has been such an appalling deterioration in social conscience in most of our public activity. In other words, the corrosion of values in public life is not confined to Ministers and top bureaucrats, but has become all-pervasive, the pollution of morals seem to choke out public service.
  If we (…)

• Remembering R.S. Sharma : Some Reflections

  13 September 2011, by P.C. Joshi

  TRIBUTE
  In the passing away of R.S. Sharma the discipline of history has lost its leading, living representative of the older generation, of the same quality and stature as D.D. Kosambi and Sushobhan Sarkar.
  D.D. Kosambi, however, was perhaps a lone scholar and researcher of exceptional calibre but confined mainly to a scholar’s ivory tower. Only in his later years did he turn into a leading promoter of the world peace movement. Sushobhan Sarkar was primarily a teacher of history having (…)