Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Endosulfan And Related Issues: Pesticide Companies’ Influence on Ministries and Scientific Panels

  24 May 2011, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  Anna Hazare is campaigning against corruption. The people’s attention is focussed on bribery and money-making forms of corruption, which can be smelt by intelligent lay public and established by diligent enquiry on the basis of common sense logic.
  There is another kind of corruption which is more insidious—appointing members of scientific and technical advisory panels, the majority of whom would belong to the lobby of the manufacturers whose products they are supposed to analyse and (…)

• Swiss Bank Secrecy

  24 May 2011, by Latika Nath

  To possess a Swiss bank account was at one time a matter of prestige, and signified status and position in society. Swiss neutrality and national sovereignty created an environment conducive to develop its banking institutions, which contributed to its economy.
  The banking laws of the country were codified by the Swiss Federal Banking Act of 1934, bringing into being the rule of secrecy. Banks were not under any duty or obligation to provide details of customer accounts to tax (…)

• Why We Forgot to Build the ’Janata Bhawan’

  24 May 2011

  BOOK REVIEW
  by PADMINI SWAMINATHAN
  Civil Disobedience: Two Freedom Struggles, One Life by L.C. Jain; The Book Review Literary Trust, New Delhi; 2010; pp. 266; Rs 395.
  The meticulously recorded details and hard-hitting nature of the contents of the above book are in complete contrast to the person that I knew as Lakshmi Jain—a very calm and composed person, with a very curious mind, and a great listener.
  This is the second book of Lakshmi that I have read from cover to cover; the (…)

• A Tribute to Badal Sircar

  24 May 2011, by Shamsul Islam

  TRIBUTE
  It is a matter of grave sorrow that one of the greatest theatre luminaries of modern Indian theatre, Badal Sircar, is no more. He died in Kolkata on Friday, May 13. He was a creative genius, a rationalist (born into a family of Christian priests, he remained an atheist throughout his life), a firm believer in justice. With his death, an era of pro-people political theatre comes to an end. Of course, he will remain alive through his works. He shunned publicity. I am reproducing (…)

• A Riposte

  24 May 2011

  COMMUNICATION
  A part of the otherwise useful article, “Governance and the Armed Forces” (S.G. Vombatkere, Mainstream April 2, 2011, pp. 19-20) seeks to separate the country’s Armed Forces entirely from a particular paramilitary force, the Assam Rifles, that also operates within the country. A riposte to it exists in the editorial “Arrogant Conduct: the forces alienate themselves”, (The Statesman, Kolkata, April 25, 2011), which I quote in full:
  In terms of all that is going on in the (…)

• On Indian Participation in a Refinery Project in Georgia

  24 May 2011, by Bashir Mohammad

  India is learnt to be seriously considering whether or not to join an oil refinery project in Georgia, one of the former Soviet republics now an independent state; it has presently been turned into the closest ally of the US in the region headed as it is by a figure who is in effect an American national (a bizarre deve-lopment!) and consistently subserving Washington’s interests, and his stewardship of the country has resulted in disastrous consequences for Georgia.
  Any step from the side (…)

• Mamata propels Historic Change in West Bengal

  24 May 2011, by SC

  The counting of votes for elections to the five State Assemblies now being over, it’s time to analyse the outcome.
  The results of the State Assembly elections have dealt a stunning blow to the Left establish-ments, notably the CPM whose present-day juvenile leaders only about three years ago were harbouring the grand illusion of running the Union Government without sharing any responsibility in its functioning by becoming its integral part. They have been forced to bite the dust in West (…)

• Using Water Conflicts for US Benefit in Central and South Asia

  24 May 2011

  by HASAN HAMIDULLAH
  The US is eager to reclaim its right to mediate between India and Pakistan on disputes between the two neighbouring states of South Asia (and these disputes are not negligible by any reckoning). Despite strong opposition from New Delhi the Obama Administration is trying to invent one pretext after another to reassert that right. The latest one is the water dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad that Washington is seeking to exploit to its advantage.
  On February 22, (…)

• Osama — Before and After

  24 May 2011

  by HAMID MIR
  “It does not matter if I die....my death and the death of others like me will one day awaken millions of Muslims from their apathy.” Osama bin Laden addressed these words to me in March 1997, in a cave in eastern Afghanistan’s Tora Bora mountains. I was the first Pakistani journalist to interview him. In May 1998 I encountered him for the second time in a hideout near Kandahar airport. He again mentioned his possible death, saying: “They cannot arrest me alive.” I received his (…)

• ’Most Significant Achievement in Our Nation’s Effort to Defeat Al-Qaeda’

  24 May 2011

  DOCUMENT by BARACK OBAMA
  The following are excerpts from US President Barack Obama’s address to the American people on May 2, 2011.
  Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the US has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
  It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the US (…)