Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Partyless Democracy: Remembering Mahatma Gandhi and JP

  6 October 2010, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  A seminar on partyless democracy at Allahabad has put me wise to the growing disenchantment with party governments, party elections and party regimentation of MPs and MLAs that deals a blow at genuine people-led and controlled democracy.
  The alienation and disenchantment with the parliamentary or presidential forms of governments, both party based, is not confined to young democracies like ours. Its most vociferous expression has appeared in the oldest democracies of the UK and USA. What (…)

• Mahatma Gandhi and Modern Civilisation

  6 October 2010, by Upasana Pandey

  In his own way, Gandhi had been a critic of modern civilisation. He criticised almost each and every aspect of modern civilisation. Whether it was the machine, profession of doctors lawyers or various political structures like State/Parliament, Gandhi could never confirm his appreciation of these signifiers of modernity. This shows that to some extent for Gandhi everything was wrong with modern civilisation. However, interestingly Gandhi’s life was highly influenced by these modern (…)

• The Conspiracy of Silence

  6 October 2010, by Nirmalya Biswas

  Irom Sharmila Chanu will be completing ten years of her continuous fast, an exceptionally courageous feat in our country and the world, on November 4, 2010, that is, precisely a month from now. We are thus publishing the following article on Gandhi Jayanti as Sharmila is silently upholding the legacy of the Mahatma in the true Gandhian spirit shunning the glare of limelight.
  Prologue
  I was then young in the early 1970s when I first heard the song “Blowin’ in the Wind” of Bob Dylan. The (…)

• Post Master’s Office for FDI in Retail

  6 October 2010, by Kamal Nayan Kabra

  Just a few weeks ago, the Economist (London) flashed a story highly critical of the GoI and its leaders for their lacklustre performance. Among the major steps it advocated for putting the governance process back on rails were a slew of measures to complete the agenda of what is misleadingly described as reforms. Among them a star place was assigned to the permission to global retail majors to invade the Indian retail market space. This, as is well known, is a segment occupied still largely (…)

• Legal Regulation of Nuclear Power

  6 October 2010

  by Lathika Nath
  Nuclear generated electric power meets the energy demands of many countries around the world. This is a reliable source of energy without any release of greenhouse gases, smoke or emissions. In a developing country like ours, it will significantly impact on the quality and comfort of life and bring about significant changes. In the years ahead nuclear energy for civilian purposes will meet our growing energy demands.
  India’s stand on non-proliferation was an important (…)

• Understanding the Emerging Contours of Indian Politics

  6 October 2010, by Ajay K. Mehra

  BOOK REVIEW
  Rise of the Plebeians? The Changing Face of Indian Legislative Assemblies by Christophe Jaffrelot and Sanjay Kumar (eds.); Routledge India, New Delhi; 2009; pages 494; Rs 895.
  Electoral Politics in Indian States: Lok Sabha Elections in 2004 and Beyond by Sandeep Shastri, K.C. Suri and Yogendra Yadav (eds.); OUP, New Delhi; 2009; pages 453; Rs 795.
  These two volumes published nine months from each other in 2009, the first just before the fifteenth general elections got (…)

• Kashmir: Two Statements

  6 October 2010

  We condemn the reported reinstatement of four police officers accused of tampering evidence in the Shopian rapes and murders case. Right from the very beginning the police tried to dismiss the rapes and murders of the two women, Neelofar and Asiya, whose badly bruised bodies were found in Rambiara nallah in Shopian in the morning of May 30, 2009, as cases of drowning, refused to lodge a first information report and made all possible efforts to tamper with evidence in the case. The policemen (…)

• Tripura: Strange Happenings in Red Citadel

  6 October 2010, by Basubrata Roy

  Strange things are happening in Tripura, the red citadel of the North-East.
  On August 28, a tribal widow, Baralakshmi Debbarma, of Anandanagar village in Sonamura Subdivision of Tripura, had a quarrel with the ex-CPI-M chairman, Shibcharan Debbarma’s sons, Manish and Uttam, over malpractices in the payment of NREGA money due; this infuriated Manish to beat up a pathetic Baralakshmi mercilessly, dragging her in a naked condition. Her younger daughter’s protest was met with the threats of (…)

• Beyond Negative Trends

  28 September 2010, by SC

  As we go to press, the news has come that the Supreme Court has deferred pronouncement of the Ayodhya verdict by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. (The date fixed for the verdict was September 24.)
  On a petition filed in the Apex Court seeking more time for bringing about an out-of-court negotiated settlement of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute between the contending parties, the two-judge SC Bench came out with a split verdict: one judge rejected the petition on the (…)

• Washington’s Strategy in the Context of Afghan Elections

  28 September 2010, by Mansoor Ali

  The hard reality in Kabul today is that Washington is averse to the emergence of a strong leader in the Afghan capital enjoying an independent power base.
  This was quite evident from the US’ overdrive to tear apart President Hamid Karzai’s front with the Northern Alliance groups against the backdrop of the September 18 parliamentary elections in the South West Asian state. At the other end Karzai’s approach has been different: he is interested in working out a genuine reconciliation with (…)