Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• In Quest for a Proactive Approach

  19 April 2010, by B K Roy Burman

  Harmonising the Gandhian Orientation for Constructive Engagement with Self-patronising Bureaucratic Narcissism on the One Hand and Militant Left Radicalism on the Other
  On April 12, the Statesman News Service (SNS) flashed the observation of a People’s Tribunal to the effect that the “entire executive and judicial administration appears to be totally apathetic to the plight of the poor, specially the tribals. Violations have now gone to the extent where fully tribal villages have been (…)

• Washington’s Motive in Central Asia and its Track Record

  19 April 2010, by Benjamin Todd

  The strategic importance of Central Asia, a region rich in oil, gas and other resources while being located in between Russia, China and the Indian subcontinent, is growing with every passing day. And the US is doggedly persisting with its efforts to reinforce its influence in that part of the globe. Washington is eager to control the local energy wealth there and regulate the so-called ‘manageable chaos’ in the area so as to exert pressure on its main rivals—Moscow and Beijing—as well as (…)

• The US War Machine—Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

  19 April 2010, by S G Vombatkere

  The Tone of the Third Millennium
  The reprehensible Al-Qaeda attack on New York (WTC) and Washington (Pentagon) in the USA on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, set the stage for the Third Millennium in its very first year. This audacious attack on the economic and military nerve-centres of the world’s greatest power shook the then US President G.W. Bush and his administration such that nobody paused to think what might be the true cause. As expected, the attacks drew retaliatory action, later (…)

• In the Wake of the Deadliest Maoist Attack

  10 April 2010, by SC

  In the deadliest Maoist attack on paramilitary forces in the Makrana forests some three kilometres from Chintalnar village in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district—and 540 kilometres soautheast of the State capital Raipur—some 76 personnel of the CRPF’s 62nd Battalion were killed in the early hours of April 6, 2010 thereby manifesting once again the adivasi-dominated Maoists’ resolute determination to resist the Indian state’s concerted efforts, through military means, to reclaim the “liberated (…)

• G.P. Koirala: A Life Dedicated to Making History

  10 April 2010, by Anand Kumar

  TRIBUTE
  The passing away of Girija Prasad Koirala, popularly known as ‘Girija Babu’, at one of the most critical junctures of democratic nation-building in Nepal and democratisation of South Asia is a great tragedy. His leaving us has left us without any ‘statesman’ in South Asia. But we can feel consoled by the fact that he has not departed without advance alert and enough pre-parations for his followers, friends and admirers.
  Girija Babu was a multifaceted leader for my (…)

• Remembering Miss C.B. Muthamma

  10 April 2010, by Lalit Uniyal

  [TRIBUTE
  Outstanding diplomat C.B. Muthamma who, as a distinguished member of the Foreign Service, headed Indian missions in several countries, passed away in Bangalore on October 15, 2009. She was a person endowed with a vision and sense of purpose—an extraordinary thinker having the interest of the nation at heart. In a few days times it will be six months since her departure from our midst. We belatedly offer our sincere tribute to her abiding memory with the following piece written (…)

• The Idea of Minority

  10 April 2010, by C B Muthamma

  People will recall that some years ago the Shiv Sena first caught the news headlines with its campaign against “Madrasis”, that is, South Indians living in Mumbai. A few years later this campaign faded out and was replaced by a campaign against non-Maharattas. It was as if Maharashtra was a sovereign country, indepen-dent of the contributions to its growth and importance by businessmen, scientists, adminis-trators and others from all over the country. In recent years the Shiv Sena has (…)

• Chicken-heart

  10 April 2010, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The unprovoked shooting down of an Iranian civilian airbus by the US warships in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf on July 3 killing nearly 300 innocent lives, has shocked the world public.
  In a pathetic bid to cover up this ghastly crime by the American armada, President Reagan called it “a terrible human tragedy” but sought to justify it by saying that it was “a proper defensive action” by the US Navy. Through a series of false (…)

• Why is the Union Home Minister Silent on Police Reforms and Human Rights?

  10 April 2010, by K S Subramanian

  The Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, made two notable presentations recently. In one, delivered to top police officials, he dwelt at length on the Maoist threat to the country. In the other, delivered to top intelligence officials, the Minister went into the new national security architecture he proposes to set up. However, he had nothing to say on the vexed issue of enforcing police reforms and protecting human rights.
  Important official reports in this regard are the 2006 Soli (…)

• Whither Tribal Autonomy in the Fifth Schedule Areas of Betul district (Madhya Pradesh)

  10 April 2010, by J.J. Roy Burman

  The provision of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution has generated a lot of interest in the affairs of welfare and development mostly in the areas predominated by the Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the central belt of India. Social activists and a group of bureaucrats and ex-bureaucrats are claiming that this Schedule is the panacea for all tribal discord. If the tenets of this constitutional provision are fully implemented the tribesmen will emancipate from their present state of plight and (…)