Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Transparency in Short Supply

  10 July 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  One of the plus points claimed by democratic governments all over the world is the transparency in their functioning. To a large measure such a claim is valid when one compares it with the style of an authoritarian regime. For instance, neither the Korean public nor the world at large was told about the last hours of President Kim II-Sung, even his death was not announced until the next day. In contrast, when Indira Gandhi’s tragic end came, the whole city of Delhi and (…)

• France Sans Precedents

  10 July 2011, by K G Somasekharan Nair

  The following article was sent to us quite sometime ago but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. —Editor
  Law of a particular nation should be determined by its national characteristics and must bear relation to the climate of each country, the quality of each soil, the situation and extent, the principal occupations of the natives and, above all, to the religion of the inhabitants, to their inclinations, riches, commerce, manners and customs.
  —Montesquieu
  Black shades (…)

• Why Not Engage In Some Self-Introspection?

  3 July 2011, by SC

  In his opening remarks during his interaction on June 29 with five editors of a news agency and newspapers (representing the PTI, Business Standard, The Tribune, Divya Marathi of the DNA group and Nai Duniya)—all handpicked by the PM’s Media Adviser—Dr Manmohan Singh made the following observation: I think that there is a growing perception that this government is in siege, that we have not been able to deliver on our agenda. An atmosphere has been created in the country—and this I say with (…)

• Effective Lokpal Not In Sight

  3 July 2011, by Rajindar Sachar

  As expected, the government and the Anna Team have disagreed on vital points. The question of inclusion of the Prime Minister within the ambit of the Lokpal is being falsely blown out of proportions by the government’s apologists. The Prime Minister, though the head of government, is only first amongst equals. In a democratic country, political vacuum does not arise as the Cabinet has a collective responsibility. Also, our past experience does not show that all our Prime Ministers have been (…)

• Indira Gandhi: Moment of Truth

  3 July 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The situation in the country has turned grave in the wake of the threats being issued by certain influential Ministers and Congress politicians to Anna Hazare that he would be given the same treatment that was meted out to Baba Ramdev at the Capital’s Ramlila Maidan in the early hours of June 5, 2011. And the threats have come just before and during the observance of the 36th anniversary of proclamation of Emergency on June 25-26, 1975. It is against this backdrop that (…)

• Whither Parliamentary Democracy In India?

  3 July 2011, by P R Dubhashi

  Fasts of Anna Hazare regarding the passing of the Lokpal Bill and Baba Ramdev against corruption and events that followed have raised fundamental questions regarding the functioning of parliamentary democracy in India.
  The 97-hour fast by Anna Hazare at Jantar Mantar which evoked huge response of people in Delhi and all over the country, compelled the government to concede his demand to constitute a joint committee of ‘Ministers and members of Civil Society’ to formulate a draft by the (…)

• Fight against Corruption: Are we Serious?

  3 July 2011, by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

  Those were the years when the people in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar thought that now the change was about to come. The crowd at his gathering was increasing regularly. The speeches were laced with new adjectives of ‘future of India’. Rajiv’s clean image had taken a beating. The exposé had jolted his government. As the Finance Minister, he ordered that the corruption charges against prominent industrialists be probed. Many of them had to go to jail. He selected his officers on the basis of their (…)

• Between Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev: Understanding the Civil Society

  3 July 2011, by Harish S. Wankhede

  The current populist rejuvenation of civil society in India has offered many questions to the intelligentsia. It has invoked ‘quick’ diagnoses for the current ills (corruption and black money) by organising a rendezvous of different antago-nists under the banner of ‘Civil Society’. One has to answer whether such heightened valorisation of civil society is in a real sense healthy for democracy or not. Further, the absence and disinterest of the ‘political Left’ to mobilise and provide (…)

• Is the RSS Trying to Hijack the People’s Movement?

  3 July 2011

  by FR. ANAND MUTTUNGAL
  Even though of late controversies are rising about the role of the RSS in various agitations the public uprising against corruption and related issues are being seen as the beginning of social transformation. People of all classes have condemned the police crackdown on those who assembled to participate on the anti-corruption fast by Baba Ramdev on Saturday-Sunday night, June 4-5, 2011. The agitation is said to be reminding people of the great people’s move-ments led (…)

• Babas, Power Elites and the Reality Show

  3 July 2011, by D.R. Chaudhry

  History repeats itself, first as a farce and then as a tragedy, thus observed a perceptive thinker. The farcical end of Baba Ramdev’s fast, facilitated by a galaxy of babas, ram bhakats, sris, sris etc., preceded by Anna Hazare’s fast against corruption, confirms this. Baba Ramdev built a sprawling empire by commodifying the age-old Indian systems of yoga and ayurveda. The spectacular success of the Baba’s venture whipped his political ambitions.
  Since the BJP’s campaign against (…)