Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• ’Operation NGO Hunt’ in Jharkhand

  12 December 2010, by Gladson Dungdung

  The Jharkhand Government has launched a new operation in the State; it can be called “Operation NGO Hunt”. In a latest discovery, the Jharkhand Police have found 1300 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as sympa-thisers of the Naxalites though nobody knows the ‘parameters’ of the ‘sympathisers’. However, the way the state is behaving with these organisations, it is very clear that anyone who raises questions against the violation of the rights of the people residing in the Red Corridor is (…)

• Destructive Zombie and Return of Karl Marx

  12 December 2010, by Devdatt P. Dubhashi

  BOOK REVIEW
  Zombie Capitalism: Global Crisis and the Relevance of Marx; by Chris Harman; Bookmarks Publications; 2009.
  Marx compared capital to a vampire, that ‘only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks’. For Chris Harman, as pictured on the cover of the book, it is better compared to the mindless, destructive zombie, ’seemingly dead when it comes to achieving human goals and responding to human feelings, but capable of sudden spurts of activity (…)

• A Non-Communist’s Salutations to Jagannath Sarkar

  12 December 2010, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  [Many Streams: Selected Essays by Jagannath Sarkar and Reminiscing Sketches was brought out last April in Patna to honour the veteran Communist leader of Bihar, Jagannath Sarkar. The author, who knew Jagannath Sarkar quite well, went through the publication and sent the following article for Mainstream. —Editor[
  This is not a review of the charming collection of essays by Jagannath Sarkar and his admirers but a tribute to Jagannathda, a gentle colossus, made brief by a severe constraint of (…)

• CPI (Maoist) and Operation Green Hunt

  12 December 2010

  COMMUNICATION
  About one hundred and fifty years ago Karl Marx, in a historic study, observed that British imperial capitalism smashed the economic foundation of the then pre-colonial India based on self-contained and self-sustained village units with a static stability for centuries. This develop-ment, of course, was facilitated by the Indian bourgeoisie after independence. But it appears that vast patches of areas, by no means insignifi-cant and inhabited by poor tribal people with their (…)

• Beacon of Hope

  12 December 2010, by SC

  The deadlock in Parliant continues with the proceedings of both Houses disrupted for the 15th day. The Union Government is in no mood to accede to the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam which the latter has amplified as the biggest scam in independent India. That is because such a JPC would have the authority to summon the PM before it; and this the government would under no circumstance allow.
  On its part the united Opposition has (…)

• Regional Implications of Russian President’s Forthcoming Visit

  12 December 2010, by Mansoor Ali

  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is visiting India in the second half of this month following French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s trip to New Delhi. The visit assume significance not only as yet another milestone in further enhancing the time-tested Indo-Russian cooperation, but in the context of the worsening situation in Afghanistan in particular; the threat of a Taliban takeover of Kabul is quite potent at this juncture and, according to keen observers and experts of the South West Asian (…)

• Beginning of the Present Phase of Alienation in Kashmir

  12 December 2010, by Balraj Puri

  Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram observed, in a an exclusive interview to Hindustan Times, that there was a need to look into the promises made in the Delhi Agreement in 1952, Indira-Sheikh Accord in 1972 and in the understanding of 1986 (between Rajiv Gandhi and Farooq Abdullah).
  In the present context, the understanding of 1986 is most relevant. Commenting on it then, I had written in an article: “The net effect of the accord would be that Kashmir will go the Punjab way (when it was (…)

• India United on Corruption?

  12 December 2010

  by Vidhu Verma
  As India emerges as an important player in the restructuring of the world economic order, it is faced with challenges related to corruption, transparency and accountability in its methods of governance. Indian democracy seems terminally ill, weakened by internal corruption and unsus-tainable spending even as it enjoys technological progress, economic prosperity and political stability.
  The recent reports on corruption linked to the Delhi Commonwealth Games, Adarsh housing (…)

• PM’s Integrity Under Attack

  12 December 2010, by Surendra Mohan

  The affidavit filed by Dr Manmohan Singh’s office has sought to divert attention from him to the Union Law Minister, Veerappa Moily. It has said that the latter took eight months to move forward the files relating to the telecom scam. This was in reply to the Supreme Court’s probe into the reasons for delay in taking appropriate action on the queries of Dr Subramanian Swamy. However, it comes out fully that the Prime Minister knew of the charges of corruption against the Telecom Minister, A. (…)

• Criminals for Hindutva? — The Hidden Hand!

  12 December 2010, by Subhash Gatade

  I
  Anyone ever heard about Sudhakarrao Maratha alias Sudhakar Rao Prabhune? A hardcore Rightwing criminal who was nabbed a few months back in Jhansi by the MP Police which seized a car, a revolver and five cartridges from him. In fact one of Sudhakar’s colleagues, Shivam Dhakad, was already under the custody of the Ujjain Police when Sudhakar was apprehended. According to senior police officers, Sudhakar Rao was in touch with the RSS Pracharak, terrorist Sunil Joshi, who was shot dead in (…)