Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• For Whom the Bell Tolls

  31 December 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  A great country caught in the web of sordid politics—that is how one is tempted to describe the state of the nation today.
  In contrast to the political set-up in India’s neighbourhood—right and left, north and south—it can of course be claimed that in our country there is a modicum of stability with democratic rights assured to and asserted by a large section of the populace. And yet there is disillusion, frustration and at places cynicism writ large all over this vast country. After (…)

• Militant Left Radicalism, State and Civil Society with Special Focus on Land Rights

  31 December 2010, by B K Roy Burman

  First phase of militant Left radicalism and state response
  The first manifestation of militant Left radicalism was in the Naxalbari area of West Bengal. Though ideological issues were also involved, the then United Front Government considered the discontent of the peasantry as providing political space for the militant radicals to operate. The government adopted a massive programme of vesting one million acres of ceiling surplus land of the big zamindars, Jotedars and land owners for (…)

• West Bengal: Simmering Embers of Rajarhat

  31 December 2010, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  The simmering embers of discontent of the evicted population of Rajarhat is now taking the shape of a bush fire. Dr B.C. Roy conceived of the Salt Lake town to provide space for the middle classes who were being squeezed out of Calcutta proper because of the sky-rocketing property prices. His idea of a satellite town at Kalyani did not succeed as it was a satellite to Calcutta. After long years of gestation it is now taking the shape of an independent town with a culture and character of its (…)

• Country’s Economy has Grown but the Nation’s Moral Fibre is Gone

  31 December 2010, by N A Karim

  In a Malayalam feature film of yesteryear, the then reigning comedian and character actor, late S.P. Pillai, is in the role of a small-time gentleman thief. If he is found out with the stolen thing he, in his unperturbed cheerful manner, would say: “Oh is this yours? Then take it.” If the owner makes any noise about it, in his same characteristic calm, casual manner he would respond: “Why then the fuss? The moment I knew that it was yours I gave back the thing to you.”
  Some of our (…)

• Neo-liberal Inclusive Growth: Contradictions, Pitfalls and Potential

  31 December 2010, by Kamal Nayan Kabra

  As India completes two decades of its engagement with neo-liberalisation, certain glaring contradictions have come out in the open. Making a marginal departure from its stated objectives derived from the logic of the neo-liberal market and globalisation theories designed to advance the agenda of the powerful global and indigenous dominant forces as adjuncts of globalised capital, the Indian policy establishment has promised a series of welfare steps to reduce the misery, deprivation and (…)

• The Bihar Election

  31 December 2010, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  To many of us from Bihar, the election verdict has come as no great surprise. That is the way Bihar is. It carries its baggage of poverty and deprivation patiently or in petty squabbles but once it has discovered the signs of leadership that can change their lives by the evidence of past performance, it pours its heart to them. This time it was Nitish Kumar in whom they found a leader both with vision and guts and the people of Bihar broke all barriers of caste, of high and low, that has (…)

• NATO, Karzai and the Relics of Kabul

  31 December 2010, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The long-term security document signed between the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghanistan on Saturday, November 20 at the alliance’s summit meeting in Lisbon has a 50-50 chance of becoming a historic milestone or ending up as yet another forlorn artefact in the vandalised Kabul museum.
  Having come to the region seven years ago on a UN-mandated “out-of-area” operation for hunting down the Al-Qaeda, the Western alliance is suo moto broadening and deepening its “commitment” in (…)

• When will the Occupation of Afghanistan End?

  31 December 2010, by Ninan Koshy

  Forty nations are embroiled in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Anyone who travels through the country with Western troops soon realises that NATO forces would have to be increased tenfold for peace to be even a remote possibility. —Ulrich Fichtner in Spiegal online International,May 29, 2008
  When will the occupation of Afghanistan by the USA-led NATO end? While the NATO Summit in Lisbon, Portugal in the third week of November gave a timetable for exit, with the end of 2014 as the point (…)

• Radia, Tusi Great Ho

  31 December 2010, by Badri Raina

  The following poem has been sent to us by Badri Raina, a former Professor of English (now retired), University of Delhi, with a note from him that reads: “This is too painful for plain prose.”
  Those that compile lists
  of the rich, famous, and powerful
  men and women
  just missed out on Niira Radia.
  Once given that proverbial chance,
  Radia made the rich and famous dance
  to her competent tune, and made fool
  of many vain achievers
  without ever going to a management (…)

• Un-journalism

  31 December 2010, by T J S George

  The closing months of 2010 saw a cascade of corruption cases as never before witnessed in India. All but one of them had a familiar thread running through them. In the Commonwealth Games swindles, the Adarsh housing fraud, the Allahabad High Court’s “Uncle judge” scandal, the PSU bank managers’ bribe-for-loan trickery and the massive land scams in the BJP’s Karnataka, the driving force was old-fashioned human greed. The exception, the Niira Radia tapes, exposed a systemic rot in the vitals (…)