Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Radhakrishnan as Statesman

  2 September 2010, by G. Parthasarthi

  Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had an integral view of the individual, society and the world community. This integral view was like a thread that ran through and held together his philosophy of education, of religion and social regeneration, and of the One World of the human family. He perceived the building of this One World as the challenge to statesmanship in the era after the Second World War and the advent of nuclear weaponry.
  One of the great teachers of our century, whose lectures and (…)

• For a New Frontier

  2 September 2010, by C.N. Chitta Ranjan

  Fifteen years have gone by and yet the Kashmir dispute has defied settlement. And today it has got entangled in a mass of other issues, ranging from defence against the Chinese menace to the securing of Western aid.
  The six rounds of ministerial level talks may have heard many a sophisticated proposal, pertaining to maps and alignments. They may have been accompanied by hectic back-stair—sometimes even frontporch—lobbyings by interested outsiders, but there was something severely missing (…)

• Growing Role of Defence Forces in Governance: An Invitation For Emergency

  2 September 2010, by S G Vombatkere

  At present, perhaps about one-third of available Army troops are deployed in counter-insurgency (CI) operations in Kashmir and the North-Eastern States. There is no question that government is empowered to call in the Army for the CI role, but this is taking its toll of both training and preparedness for its primary role of countering external threat and maintaining India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. While the Army can be called to perform its secondary role of aid to civil power (…)

• Illegalitity of Vedanta’s Niyamgiri Mining Project is Well Established

  2 September 2010, by Bharat Dogra

  This article was written before the latest landmark decision of the Centre rejecting environmental clearance to the Vedanta group’s $ 1.7 billion bauxite mining project in Orissa’s Niyamgiri hills with Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh citing serious violations of the Environment Protection Act 1966, Forest Counservation Act 1980 and Forest Rights Act 2006 by both the Orissa Government and Vedanta in this regard.
  The four-member committee headed by N.C. (…)

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  No End to the Injustice: Statement Of The Solidarity Committee For Burma’s Freedom Fighters

  2 September 2010

  (This statement was issued on July 20, 2010 but could not be carried earlier due to unavoidable reasons.)
  After more than twelve years of struggling to get justice in Indian courts 34 Burmese freedom fighters are still in prison even though the case in court has finished. The question is: why?
  The saga of the struggle of the 34 Burmese freedom fighters never caught the imagination of the media except in the beginning of their detention because these are men who have no faces. They are (…)

• US Clutches at Flood Relief Opportunities in Pakistan

  2 September 2010, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The humanitarian situation resulting from the unprecedented floods in Pakistan has been turned into a playground of regional geopolitics. The responsibility for this primarily lies with the United States, which fashioned its response to the crisis in a needlessly competitive spirit.
  The needs of Pakistan are of stupendous proportions. Even cold statistics bring this out. One-fifth of the landmass of Pakistan is inundated and the lives of 20 million people have been affected. Nothing (…)

• Significance of Okada’s Visit to India

  2 September 2010, by Rajaram Panda

  The Foreign Minister of Japan, Okada Yatsuya, visited India on August 21, 2010 as a part of his five-day trip to India and Thailand. During his visit, Okada held important discussions with his counterpart; S.M. Krishna, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. Okada had the fourth round of strategic dialogue with his counterpart. However, what emerged as the most important agenda in the dialogue (…)

• Mamata, Maoists and Indian Democracy

  2 September 2010, by Ambrose Pinto

  There was uproar in Parliament against Mamata Banerjee and her party for inviting the Maoists for her rally in Lalgarh. The uproar continues and there have been arguments for and against what Mamata Banerjee said and did. That violence has no place in a democracy is accepted by all. Nobody can glorify violence, not even the state. But the central question is: why is it that we have not succeeded in handling the Maoist and Naxal issue threatening the foundations of our democracy? There is no (…)

• The Stark Reality

  22 August 2010, by SC

  We are on the threshold of yet another Independence Day—our sixtyfourth. In the last 63 years since August 15, 1947 the country has registered considerable progress in different spheres ranging from science and technology including nuclear power, and heavy industry to Information Technology, an area where our achievements are unhesitatingly recognised by the most developed nations of the world. We have also emerged as a major power in today’s global scenario by dint of our advancement in (…)

• Celebrating Independence Day

  22 August 2010, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  It will be our 64th Independence Day on August 15, 2010 and a time to celebrate according to our official calendar. Personally, I have found little cause for celebrating it as our independence Day. Achieving independence of the British was hardly a rare event. Firstly there had been many more invaders of our country who had beaten us either temporarily or till they had been ousted by another invader like the Mughals by the East India Company and then the British Government or had been been (…)