Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Last Days of the LTTE: India’s Dubious Role

  8 April 2011, by Apratim Mukarji

  Well before the last days of the civil war in Sri Lanka had begun to be counted, it was clear to the world at large that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government was determined to pursue its military campaign single-mindedly to its logical conclusion, that is, the crushing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and a definitive end to Tamil separatism.
  The world also knew—its interests kept alive by a constant barrage of expressions of concern for the enormous human cost that this all-out (…)

• An Open Letter to the Prime Minister

  8 April 2011

  by Shobha Aggarwal
  Respected Sir,
  In December 2005 your good-self had launched the flagship scheme, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), with the stated objective of urban development. The policy document clearly enunciates the mandatory reforms to be implemented by the States and civic agencies during 2005-12. To receive funds—Rs 60,000 crores in all earmarked by the Central Government—under the JNNURM, the states and civic agencies have to sign a Memorandum of (…)

• Ideal and Waste: Char Adhyay Reread

  8 April 2011, by Amiya Dev

  This article was sent to us quite sometime ago but it could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. It is now being published since next month will fall Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary.
  We know that Châr Adhyây (Four Chapters) was Rabindranath’s second political novel. We also know that like Ghare-Bâire (The Home and the World), 1916, the first, it fared ill with nationalists, and that one special reason for that had been his reference to Brahmabandhab (…)

• How the RSS Dreads the Terror Tag

  8 April 2011, by Subhash Gatade

  MR BHAGWAT, IT’S TIME FOR AN APOLOGY!
  I
  Ram Madhav, the bispectacled (ex-) spokes-person of the RSS, is not known for his sense of humour.
  It is a different matter that some of the media people just could not control their smiles when sometime back (in the second week of February 2011) at a press conference in the Capital he enlightened the journos about l’affaire Aseemanand and the broader phenomenon of Hindutva terror.
  Giving a completely new and almost unforeseen twist to the (…)

• Morals and Politics

  8 April 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  Very often nowadays one hears the catch-phrase that “the system has broken down”. It is a common cliché in the intellectual circle all over the country, and has now been taken up by the politician as well—a sort of convenient alibi to cover up their own misdoings.
  There is no denying the fact that the acknowledged set of values by which a democratic system functions have been largely abandoned, with the result that while the facade of democratic functioning is (…)

• Welcome Addition to Studies on Punjab Politics

  8 April 2011, by Ranbir Singh

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  Punjab Politics: Retrospect and Prospect by Bhupinder Singh; Readworthy Publications, New Delhi; 2010; pp. xx + 268; Price: Rs 950.
  The study of State politics merits the attention of the Indian scholars in the discipline of political science for many reasons. In the first instance, some of the States of the Indian Union are bigger in the size of their area and population than many nation-states of the Europe. Secondly, the general belief about the weakness of the States (…)

• For Real Scoundrels, Look Beyond Media

  7 April 2011, by T J S George

  Does the media distort facts? The Prime Minister thinks so. By “focussing excessively” on scam after scam, does the media spoil India’s image? The Prime Minister thinks so. For the leader of a government that is neck-deep in scams, it is natural to think as the Prime Minister does. But that does not make it right. In fact the Prime Minister is hopelessly wrong.
  Manmohan Singh was in conversation with television editors. A great deal can be said in criticism of news channels. Generally (…)

• Japan, Libya, ‘Cash-for-Votes’ and WikiLeaks

  28 March 2011, by SC

  The enormity of the natural disaster in Japan on account of the earthquake-cum-tsunami that struck that country on March 11 (lately experts have concluded that the quake measured 9 on the Richter scale and not 8.9 as was earlier stated) is coming out in its grotesque form with every passing day. According to latest reports, the quake-cum-tsunami killed an estimated 9400 persons while another 14,700 are reported missing and yet another 2750 have been injured; the damages caused by the (…)

• Nuclear Power — Real Risks, Real Costs

  28 March 2011, by S G Vombatkere

  Assurances
  In view of the renewed focus on the nuclear industry following the earthquake-tsunami double-whammy in Japan, India’s nuclear industry and its proponents are in overdrive to assure the public that nuclear safety issues are well in hand, but are nevertheless being reviewed. Some supporters of the nuclear programme have questioned the credentials of the common people to question the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs); one commentator has even accused critics of the nuclear (…)

• Mad Dog on Rampage

  28 March 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  [In the wake of the airstrikes by the US, UK and France on Gaddafi’s Libya, one is reminded of the bombing of Libya, led by the same leader, that the US under Ronald Reagan carried out in April 1986, that is, twentyfive years ago. That is precisely why we are reproducing here one of N.C.’s editorials written at that time. Even though the conditions under which that bombing took place are vastly different from the situation prevailing today, the contents of the (…)