Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Pakistan Failed Jinnah

  13 September 2011, by Ajeet Jawed

  On September 11 this year falls Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s sixtythird death anniversary. The following article is being published on that occasion. There are a few figures in the history of the world who can be put in both a positive and a negative frame. Mohammad Ali Jinnah is one of them. He is both revered and hated, and admired and cursed, by the vast masses of the subcontinent.
  For forty years of his political career, he fought for the freedom of India. In those days he was proud to be (…)

• Speaking the Libyan Mind

  13 September 2011, by Uttam Sen

  A voice that informs several themes, at least in debate, is that of the Libyan novelist, Hisham Matar. Though an obvious empathiser of the anti-Gaddafi rebels, he has enunciated the idea of change in universal terms: “For the first time in our history the idea of democracy is a real, tangible idea, not a fairy tale. Revolutions aren’t about negative objectives, about simply getting rid of people. They are about discovering who we are; and what it means to be Libyans.” Gaddafi might have “got (…)

• The Endless War: America, Afghanistan, and the War on Terrorism

  13 September 2011, by Eddie J Girdner

  REVIEW ARTICLE Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid; Viking, New York; 2008; Maps, Glossary of Terms, Notes, Bibliography, Index.
  America has now been in Afghanistan for ten years. Again, America has triumphed. Again, America has failed. Again, countries have been saved. Again, countries have been destroyed. Again, people have been freed. Again, people have been crushed, and maimed, and (…)

• Afghanistan: NATO Defeat and New US Game-Plan

  13 September 2011, by Bashir Mohammad

  The political situation in Afghanistan is continually worsening. The Afghan Army and coalition forces have been rebuffed in their efforts to bring the country’s southern and eastern provinces under their control. On the contrary, the Taliban have lately once again established their presence in all the areas from where they had been uprooted due to the operations of the coalition forces since 2001.
  A majority of the Pushtun population sympathise with and back the Taliban fighting foreign (…)

• The Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty and its Legacy

  13 September 2011, by Arun Mohanty

  As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of historic Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation signed on August 9, 1971, we cannot miss to re-emphasise the important role the Treaty played in safeguarding India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, shaping the geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent and strengthening regional security and world peace.
  The Treaty was second perhaps only to India’s attainment of independence in terms of its significance for Indians and in terms (…)

• Anna Movement, Real People, Backroom Dynasts

  6 September 2011, by Analyst

  Deification is a tempting business in India. The media, the intellectuals and the people at large have shares in this business. The Anna Hazare protests showed how easy it is to become the “general will” if not the “divine will” of the state in the age of 24/7 media channels. Interestingly, both Team Anna and its critics are equal participants in this process.
  It is evident that Anna Hazare is the man of his times. His movement was premised on a masterly sense of the mood of the nation. (…)

• Legislating in Indian Parliament — Fact and Fiction: A Case Study

  6 September 2011

  by SHOBHA AGGARWAL
  “The question is, who drafts the law and who makes the law? I submit that the time-honoured practice is that the Executive drafts a Bill and places it before Parliament and that Parliament debates and adopts the Bill with amendments if necessary. In the process of adoption of the Bill, there will be opportunities for Shri Anna Hazare and others to present their views to the Standing Committee to which this Bill has been referred by the Hon’ble Speaker. The Standing (…)

• In a Society that Bribes God Himself, Corruption becomes Part of Life

  6 September 2011, by T J S George

  The ultimate question remains: Can corruption be abolished by law? We are a society in which dowry and child marriage and untouchability and khap panchayat atrocities continue despite laws banning them. They continue because they are deeply ingrained in the national culture and the political will required to wipe them out is simply not there.
  Ditto with corruption. Kautilya said: “It is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the King’s revenue.” He famously (…)

• Corruption: Need for Social Ferment

  6 September 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  There are many aspects of the celebration of the golden jubilee of independence—the magnificent pageantry that one witnessed in Delhi—which would be long remembered by millions all over the country thanks largely to the television. However, it was President Narayanan’s gentle but firm warning against corruption which has emerged as a definite landmark in the struggle for a better India.
  There is nothing new for the First Citizen to address a warning to his (…)

• Everybody has a Right to Raise her/his Voice, and Protest in a Democracy like Ours; but…

  6 September 2011, by K Saradamoni

  When I sit to write this, I am hearing on the television something which has been there continuously for the last four-five days. It is about Anna Hazare and the movement he has launched to free India of corruption in which our country is nearly drowned. People, women and men, children, youth and the elderly have come out in large numbers in many parts of the country to support Anna Hazare and his team whom they have come to believe. That belief comes mainly from a few of the qualities they (…)