Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Kannabiran — the Fighter for Your Rights

  31 January 2011, by A K Dasgupta

  TRIBUTE
  It is with a deep sense of grief and sorrow that I write this piece to report the sad demise of Kandadi Gopalaswamy Kannabiran, affectionately called Kanna. He passed away on December 30, 2010, at the age of 81, after prolonged illness. The Amnesty International (AI) has hailed him as “a passionate advocate for human rights”.
  Born on November 8, 1929 in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) to Kandadi Gopalaswamy Iyenger and Pankajan, he had his early early education in Nellore where his family (…)

• Indian Foreign Policy Since The End of Cold War: Containing or Coping with Unipolarity?

  31 January 2011, by Arvind Kumar

  BOOK REVIEW
  by Arvind Kumar
  Indian Foreign Policy in a Unipolar World by Harsh V. Pant (ed.); Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group, London, pp. IX + 378; Price: £ 70.00
  With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union many realists argue that unipolarity has arrived…the USA, in other words, is the sole great power. It has achieved global hegemony, a feat no other country has ever accomplished. Other realists, however, argue that the post-Cold War system is multipolar, (…)

• Pakistan: The Kayani Strategy

  31 January 2011

  by Firdaus Ahmed
  Washington Post informs: ‘US efforts fail to convince Pakistan’s top general to target Taliban’ (December 31, 2010). It writes that ‘In October, Administration officials choreographed a White House meeting for Kayani at which Obama could directly deliver his message of urgency. The Army Chief heard him out, then provided a 13-page document updating Pakistan’s strategic perspective and noting the gap between short-term US concerns and Pakistan’s long-term interests, (…)

• Meeting the Challenge

  31 December 2010, by SC

  Mainstream’s entry into its fortyninth year with this Annual Number has coincided with a crisis afflicting the Indian polity the dimensions of which are unprecedented even by the standards set by the unforeseen developments in our chequered post-independence history.
  The proceedings of both Houses of Parliament were disrupted throughout the winter session by a unified Opposition spearheading the demand for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam, something (…)

• Tribute To Surendra Mohan

  31 December 2010

  Socialist leader Surendra Mohan is no more. He passed away in the morning of September 17 at his residence in Sah Vikas in the Trans-Jamuna area of Delhi. He had health problems no doubt but was not ailing. He literally died in harness. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.
  Only a few months ago one had met him at a meeting in the Capital and requested him for an article for Mainstream as it was necessary for someone like him to write from a Gandhian perspective. He smilingly (…)

• Remembering Surendra Mohan

  31 December 2010, by Devaki Jain

  In the passing away of Surendra Mohan, India has lost one more—soon after L.C. Jain—stalwart of the Indian political landscape. Surendra Mohan and L.C. Jain worked—I used to often tease them—like tweedledum-tweedledee during the space between the results of the elections of 1977 and the formation and definition of the Janata Party of their dreams. I use the term “dreams” as they had envisioned what perhaps most Indian citizens have always aspired for—a highly democratic political party (…)

• Indian People Should Extend More Support To Burma’s Democratic Movement: Suu Kyi

  31 December 2010

  “After seven years of house arrest the indomitable leader of Burma’s democratic movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, was released in Rangoon on November 13, 2010. Remembering her as an icon of the Burmese struggle for democracy that the ruling military junta has failed to suppress till date, we are publishing, with due acknowledgement, the following interview she gave on phone to the Managing Editor of Mizzima News, Sein Win, on November 16, 2010; here she comments on a wide range of issues including (…)

• In the Face of Ruthless Power

  31 December 2010

  by Aung San Suu Kyi
  Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are (…)

• Villain In Life, Hero In Death! Hindutva’s New-found Love for Hemant Karkare

  31 December 2010, by Subhash Gatade

  ...sources who were close to Karkare have said there was indeed a threat perception at that time and the former ATS chief was disturbed over allegations against his family after the Malegaon probe was made public.
  However, they said “Karkare was not scared” and that “he was very practical and took adequate measures to ensure his family was safe”. According to sources, Karkare had raised the wall around his house just a week before his death and also brought home a dog. “The wall was raised (…)

• Judicial Corruption in Profusion Must be Wiped Out without Mercy

  31 December 2010, by V R Krishna Iyer

  The judiciary enjoys vast powers as they are final and infallible, so powerful that when an executive violates the law the judges can quash their action and issue directions in exercise of the writ power. When Parliament makes law and transgresses the Constitution or issues orders beyond the bounds of fundamental rights, the court can demolish that order and action but when the higher courts are guilty of unrestrained violation there is no instrument to correct them nor is there a code to (…)