Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Central Interlocutors and Task Forces against the Ground Realities in J&K

  31 December 2010, by Balraj Puri

  The Government of India appointed three interlocutors to “start dialogue with all groups in Kashmir” and appointed two Task Forces—one for Jammu and the other for Ladakh—“to examine their development needs with particular reference to deficiencies in infrastructure and make suitable recommendations”.
  Whatever may be merit of the interlocutors—Dileep Padgoankar, M.M. Ansari and Radha Kumar—their appointment was widely criticised for being light weight and the non-inclusion of a heavyweight (…)

• The Army’s Right to an Opinion

  31 December 2010

  by Firdaus Ahmed
  The right of the Army to voice an opinion has been defended by the Minister of State for Defence, Pallam Raju. The background to his defence was Omar Abdullah’s complaint to the Prime Minister on an Army press release a day earlier. The press release indicated that the decision to remove certain bunkers from Srinagar did not have the Army’s concurrence.
  The press release had stated: ‘Though it appeared to be a well-considered decision, the latest incident has raised (…)

• Why don’t We Listen to the Mirwaiz?

  31 December 2010, by Humra Quraishi

  Why are we not ready to hear what Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has to say? Why is it that he is allowed to be heckled not just in one locale but in each city on the itinerary? Why is the so- called democratic space shrinking so steadily that there seems little room for discussion or for a healthy debate or to even hear what the other has to say? Why is it that those ample relays which are only one-sided, typically babu worded version on the Kashmir Valley ought to be in focus?
  There are extremely (…)

• Migration, Protection and Law

  31 December 2010, by Lakshmidhar Mishra

  Every law is the product of a particular point of time and carries with it the political and economic ethos obtaining at that point of time. Enacted with good intentions, it falls into disuse and eventually becomes a dead letter on account of sweeping changes in the social, economic and political milieu on the one hand and rapid decline over a period of time in the positive and proactive ethos which had given birth to the legislative framework at a particular point of time. It is precisely (…)

• Ordinary People, Extraordinary Movement

  31 December 2010

  by Madhuresh Kumar
  In the early eighties when the murmurs of protest were taking shape against the Sardar Sarovar Dam then no one had thought that the reverberations of ‘Narmada Bachao, Manav Bachao’ [Save Narmada, Save Humanity] will continue nearly three decades after that. The Narmada Bachao Andolan, the seeds of which were sown in 1985, has continued to challenge the Dam, the technocratic model of development, and kept the flag of resistance and justice afloat for the communities in (…)

• Narmada Bachao Andolan — 25 Years of Resistance and Reconstruction

  31 December 2010, by S G Vombatkere

  The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) has reached its quarter century landmark of resistance to the mega-projects in the Narmada valley, becoming an international icon of non-violent protest against destructive development. The NBA is a mass movement; its sustained non-violent and peaceful efforts for equity and justice in the face of severe provocation, and its model of leadership make it a shining example of Gandhian ideals in an era of extreme corruption in morals and ethics.
  Resisting the (…)

• Two Decades of New Economic Policies

  31 December 2010, by Arun Kumar

  I. Introduction
  The New Economic Policies (NEP) were initiated in June 1991 by the Narasimha Rao Government within days of its taking office. There was little hint in its manifesto drafted to fight the elections in May 1991 that anything like this would be initiated by it if it came to power. Dr Manmohan Singh was chosen to be the Finance Minister of this government. In the past two decades of the working of these policies, the basic parameters of the economy and society have undergone a (…)

• Indian Bourgeoisie in Post-Colonial Setting

  31 December 2010, by Kripa Shankar

  The Indian bourgeoisie had its genesis in the colonial order created by the British in the interest of their imperialist designs. They transplanted the European type of feudalism on Indian soil. Under British rule zamindars were owners of the bulk of the land and were free to raise revenue exactions beyond any limit. And their greed and tyranny knew no bounds. The British deliberately destroyed the handicrafts, mainly cotton textiles, to make room for British manufactures. Rural India was in (…)

• Soap Bubbles in our Security Perspectives

  31 December 2010, by Rakesh Gupta

  Any security—individual, societal and state stands on values, structures and processes within a state in a given external environment of hostility. Constitutionalism, democracy, group rights, secularism and justice are the foundational values, as laid out in the Constitution, that would and do form our core values informing the structures of India’s ‘democratic political community’. Every person, group, official, political party, tribe, community and caste are supposed to abide by these (…)

• Marx to Gandhi—Experiences of a Lifetime

  31 December 2010, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  REVIEW ARTICLE
  In Search of a Better World: Memoirs by Jolly Mohan Kaul; published by Samya, a publishing house in Kolkata; 2010; pages 384; price: Rs 700.
  This reviewer has much in common with the author. Both joined the communist movement in their teens. This reviewer, after a stint of 19 years, relinquished his membership in February 1957, after his differences on both domestic policies and foreign affairs culminating in his public denunciation in 1957 of the Soviet suppression of (…)