Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Floods and Rivers: Blinded by Arrogance of Technology or Vested Interest?

  19 October 2010, by Madhu Bhaduri

  The Yamuna, a filthy drain for most of the year in Delhi, comes alive during the monsoon season. This year the river has not only spread itself over a larger expanse, it has driven home a point which many observers and experts have been trying to make unsuccessfully especially before the learned judges: that our rivers cannot be compared with European rivers like the Thames, Seine and Danube, because they are replenished only with the seasonal monsoon rains. Rivers in India shrink and expand (…)

• Junglemahal: Centre Cannot Escape its Responsibility

  19 October 2010, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  It was reported that when some MPs from Trinamul Congress presented incontrovertible evidence of more than 90 camps in the Junglemahal area by the CPI-M with their goons armed with illegal firearms, the Union Home Minister expressed his contrived helplessness and tried to evade his responsibility by stating that law and order is a State subject under the Constitution. He was technically correct up to a point. List II—State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution—mentions: “Public (…)

• Nobel Peace Prize to Lin Xiaobo: A Wake-up Call for Political Reforms in China

  19 October 2010, by Rajaram Panda

  The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to the imprisoned Chinese dissident writer and activist, Liu Xiaobo. This Peace Prize is the first Nobel for the Chinese dissident community since the Chinese leader-ship introduced economic reforms but bereft of political reforms almost three decades ago. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu would trigger a debate inside China about whether and when China should begin democratic reforms. There are already symptoms of the (…)

• ‘Shastra Pujas’: What is Religious about Worshipping Weapons?

  19 October 2010, by Subhash Gatade

  Schools are meant for play and studies where kids slowly blossom into adolescents.
  Schools are meant for books, laboratories and other cultural activities which cater to the all- round development of its inhabitants.
  Schools are meant for the opening up of minds, inculcating inquisitiveness and curiosity, explaining the wonder that is the world and leading the students towards further enquiries and promoting inclusiveness cutting across different ascriptive categories with (…)

• Afghanistan: CIA’s ’Army of Assassins’

  19 October 2010, by Bashir Mohammad

  The CIA is funding the operation of a secret 3000-strong Afghan paramilitary army whose principal objective is to assassinate the Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives not just in Afghanistan but also in adjoining Pakistan’s tribal areas across the border. This has been brought out in sharp relief in Bob Woodward’s recently published absorbing but sensational book, Obama’s Wars. This operation bears striking resemblance with the covert assassination drive against the Al-Qaeda in Iraq; this helped (…)

• Ayodhya Verdict: Appeal to Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court

  19 October 2010

  The Ayodhya judgment of the Allahabad High Court has relied on a Report, submitted to the High Court in 2003, by the Archaeological Survey of India after its excavations on the site, as ordered by the Court. As citizens of India, or persons of Indian origin, or friends of India, we demand that this Report should be published forthwith and be available for scrutiny in the public domain, especially to scholars, as it is now a part of the public judicial record.
  We learn that two (…)

• Essence of the September 30 Verdict

  14 October 2010, by SC

  While the three-hour spell-binding opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games before a packed Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the Capital on October 3 has warmed the hearts of every spectator, what was most noteworthy was the rousing applause with which the 60,000-strong crowd greeted the Pakistani participants in the Games—after the Indian team the biggest round of applause was reserved for them. This was fresh reflection of the importance of sports in breaking down artificial barriers raised (…)

• Who wants a War?

  14 October 2010, by Rakesh Gupta

  In the times of recession Obama claims to fulfill his promise to withdraw troops from Iraq. His military man in Afghanistan, Petraeus, is formulating a programme to withdraw from Afghanistan next year. Obama himself has announced steps to deal with the economy at home. He has unveiled an infrastructure programme of $ 50 billion to get more jobs for the American labour by investing in railways, roadways and airways and help middle class business with tax cuts.
  If seen in the context of the (…)

• Corporate Culpable Crimes

  14 October 2010, by Shyam Chand

  In case of Santa Clara County versus Southern Pacific Railroad, Justice Morrison Remick Waite of the US Supreme Court, without hearing the argument pronounced that
  The court does not wish to hear the argument on the question of whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.
  Summary record of (…)

• Eye of the Crisis - Where are we heading to?

  14 October 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The government introduces a bill in Parliament without bothering to enforce the whip on its supporters to be present in the House. Equally shocking is the conduct of the Opposition which, while claiming to be the largest party in Parliament, goes back on its own word without the least scruple and does not vote for the amendment that earlier on the very same day it promised to support. And this was followed by a sordid exhibition of exchange of abuses, in which the (…)