Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Why are Multinational Companies So Keen to Push Hazardous GM/GE Crops?

  10 July 2010, by Bharat Dogra

  Eminent scientists, who have examined the technology of genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified (GM) crops, have come to a clear conclusion that it is a highly hazardous and risky technology. For example, eminent scientists from several countries, who comprise the Independent Science Panel (ISP), have drawn this conclusion after studying various aspects of GM crops. “GM crops have failed to deliver the promised benefits and are posing escalating problems on the farm.....GM crops (…)

• On PM’s Trip to the Valley, Israel goes Killing

  10 July 2010, by Humra Quraishi

  Sometime ago I had written that Sonia Gandhi’s advisers ought to have told her to move beyond Jammu. Towards those particular locales in the Valley where the affected families, of those slain in the fake encounters or those raped and murdered by the security forces, just about survive. And now I wish to dwell a little more on this aspect—though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in the Valley, his advisers kept him away from meeting the family of the two Shopian women who had been brutally (…)

• Colours of Democracy

  10 July 2010, by Arup Kumar Sen

  India has a long argumentative tradition in spite of its many failures. The tradition is reflected in our public debates. The debates, in their turn, make us aware of the less explored aspects of our social reality. Some of the recent interventions of public intellectuals are revisited below to enlighten us about the modalities of our governance.
  Information technology has undergone a revolution in recent years. But, what kind of information do we get in public life? Mrinal Pande has (…)

• Mounting Public Revulsion

  27 June 2010, by SC

  As we go to press, the Union Cabinet is learnt to have accepted the recommendations of the Group of Ministers set up by the UPA Government to revisit the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy and suggest means to help the victims after more than 25 years.
  It was proposed by several persons, including Opposition politicians, that the GoM’s action plan should be placed before an all-party committee as well as organisations striving secure justice for the Bhopal victims for the past quarter of a century (…)

• The Lengthening Shadow over Kabul

  27 June 2010, by Apratim Mukarji

  The recent spate of exposures in Western media about Pakistan’s heightened ambition of expanding its “srategic depth” in Afghanistan, which was severely dented in the post-9/11 period, serves to strengthen the traditional skepticism about the long-term efficacy of a search for peace in South Asia.
  The “trust deficit” between themselves that both India and Pakistan aspire to reduce through renewed dialogue is being expanded quite effectively at this very moment by Islamabad’s well-planned (…)

• Letter to the Bihar Chief Minister

  27 June 2010, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  Respected Chief Minister,
  Patna made history again by rebuffing an attempt to throw doubts on her deepest ideals, notwithstanding the spat it caused between the two members of the NDA with a limited common programme. The BJP clearly violated the terms of the alliance on the occasion of its National Executive meet at Patna by using it as a platform for claiming false and misleading proximity and warmth between the Bihar and Gujarat CMs when there had been none after the horrendous Gujarat (…)

• Dealing with the Maoist Challenge

  27 June 2010, by P R Dubhashi

  The Dantewada massacre of 75 jawans of the CRPF ambushed by the Maoists followed in the next week by the blowing up of a bus carrying civilians in which some jawans of the CRPF were also travelling taking a heavy toll of 50 lives has forced agonising reappraisal of the strategy adopted so far by the Union Home Ministry in dealing with the Maoist challenge. A senior member of the Congress and the former Chief Minister of MP, Digvijay Singh, openly criticised the Home Minister for his wrong- (…)

• Whither Reservations?

  27 June 2010, by Sheetal Sharma

  As the final phase of the intake of OBCs quota in educational institutions—such as central universities, IIMs, IITs, AIIMS, institutions funded or managed under the aegis of the Central Government—is going to be accomplished in the coming session, there is a sense of satisfaction that another step has been taken for the upliftment of the socially backward sections of society. Hitherto, the backward castes and communities have been denied any attempt to rise socially; thus it is our (…)

• Social Profiling: Indian Style

  27 June 2010, by Subhash Gatade

  “The Muslim is not wanted in the armed forces because he is always suspect—whether we want to admit it or not, most Indians consider Muslims a fifth column for Pakistan.” [Vengeance! India after the assassination of Indira Gandhi (New Delhi, Norton, 1985), pp. 1995-96] —George Fernandes
  Amnesty International defines racial profiling as the targeting of individuals and groups by law enforcement officials, even partially, on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion, except (…)

• For N.C. Democracy and Socialism were Inseparable

  27 June 2010, by K R Narayanan

  On Nikhil Chakravartty’s twelfth death anniversary on June 27, 2010, we remember the founder of this journal by reproducing four tributes to him after his death by noted personalities (the former President of India and three veteran journalists) who knew him closely. None of them is, however, currently with us. The piece by K.R. Narayanan appeared in The Book Review (August 1998) and was reproduced later in Mainstream (September 12, 1998). The piece by Chanchal Sarkar was published in the (…)