Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Obama’s Visit to India: Powering the Eagle

  24 November 2010, by Sudhakar Panda

  Obama’s visit, which was initially hailed with a note of caution, created a sense relief, comfort and strengthened friendship with the US after the nation heard him addressing the Indian Parliament. In Mumbai where he landed with his business entourage consisting of CEOs of American MNCs, the President, as expected of him, talked of the US’ business interests in India and at Delhi he addressed some of the vital politico-economic issues ranging from cross- border terrorism from Pakistan to (…)

• Please Don’t Use Mahatma Gandhi’s Name While Promoting Weapons Sales

  24 November 2010, by Bharat Dogra

  Before embarking on his recent (November) trip to India and other Asian countries, President Obama said at a press conference in Washington: “As I plan for my trip later this week to Asia, the whole focus is on how are we going to open up markets so that American businesses can prosper, and we can sell more goods and create more jobs here in the United States. And a whole bunch of corporate executives are going to be joining us so that I can help them open up those markets and allow them to (…)

• The Person behind the Politics

  24 November 2010, by Somnath Chatterjee

  TRIBUTE
  My association with Siddhartha Shankar Ray (1920-2010) goes back about 50-60 years. We were colleagues in court, though he was about a decade ahead when I joined the Bar. We have appeared in many cases both together and against each other. And this was to be repeated even later, as we both entered politics. Even though our parties and politics were mutually opposed, we had a very good personal relationship. In fact, he often told Jyoti Basu (who persuaded me into politics), that he (…)

• Success of the Obama Visit

  16 November 2010, by SC

  From all accounts the first trip to India of the first African American President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, has been successful. Not only was Obama’s spellbinding oratory, in full display at the Parliament’s Central Hall (where he addressed the joint session of the two Houses—the high point of the visit), full of substance alongside predictable rhetoric, he positively responded to almost all the concerns articulated by the Indian side vis-à-vis Pakistan and 26/11 (that is, (…)

• Cost of Permanent Membership of UNSC

  16 November 2010

  by K.B.
  For long, India’s political discourse has been dominated by what Pakistan does in the inter-national fora vis-a-vis India. Pakistan has a particularly typical history as far as multilateral organisations are concerned. Most recently, a junior level official of Pakistani origin ended up speaking for UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the Kashmir issue embarrassing both the UN and India. Every multilateral forum has been used by Pakistan to highlight issues that mark the soft spots (…)

• Indo-US Joint Statement

  16 November 2010

  DOCUMENTS
  The following are the Joint Statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama at the end of the summit level Indo-US talks in New Delhi on November 8, 2010, and US President Barack Obama’s address to the Joint Session of both Houses of Parliament on November 8, 2010.
  Reaffirming their nations’ shared values and increasing convergence of interests, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama resolved today in New Delhi to expand and strengthen (…)

• An Indian’s Open Letter to President Obama

  16 November 2010, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  The following article reached us too late for publication before President Obama’s visit to India. We are publishing it now in the hope that its message will reach the US President. —Editor
  Dear President Obama,
  Your rise to the US Presidency raised expectations of the Black races and the downtrodden peoples of the world. Your fight, in the first year of your governance, for extending the health insurance cover to the unprivileged sections of the American people, earned people’s (…)

• Obama’s Address to Joint Session of Parliament

  16 November 2010

  Mr Vice President, Madame Speaker, Mr Prime Minister, Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and most of all, the people of India.
  I thank you for the great honour of addressing the representatives of more than one billion Indians and the world’s largest democracy. I bring the greetings and friendship of the world’s oldest democracy—the USA, including nearly three million proud and patriotic Indian Americans.
  Over the past three days, my wife Michelle and I have experienced the (…)

• Indira and the Legacy

  16 November 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  One of the striking impressions of the AICC pilgrims returning from Bombay is about the Prime Minister’ style in dealing with the critics of government policies.
  This question is not something which came up all of a sudden at the Bombay AICC. In fact it has become the subject matter of avid gossips and discussions in the Capital for the last few weeks, particularly since the Prime Minister’s return from the USA. From the person-to-person broadcast to the press (…)

• Nehru for Today

  16 November 2010

  November 14 this year marks Jawaharlal Nehru’s one hundred and twentyfirst birth anniversary. On this occasion we are publishing the following excerpts from Panditji’s speeches, writings and interviews carried in Jawaharlal Nehru: An Anthology (edited by Sarvepalli Gopal). Thereafter we are reproducing three articles on Nehru by noted writer late Sajjad Zaheer (who played a seminal role in the Afro-Asian writers’ movement and was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan in (…)