Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Black and White

  18 February 2010, by SC

  The recent decision on the part of South Block to resume Indo-Pak talks, despite no visible signs from the side of Islamabad that it was taking tangible steps to dismantle the infrastructure of terror operating from within Pakistan and directed against India, has evoked mixed reactions in this country. The forces of subcontinental peace desiring friendship and amity with Pakistan have received a boost with this decision of the Indian Government; of course their position has always been (…)

• K.N. Raj Is No More

  18 February 2010

  Distinguished economist Kakkadan Nandanath Raj, 85, who contributed to the preparation of the First Five Year Plan (1951-56) at the age of 26 as an expert member of the Planning Commission, was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi and founded the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Kerala, passed away in Thiruvananthapuram on February 10. He had been keeping indifferent health for some time.
  Dr Raj, like former President K.R. Narayanan (with whom he had a close bond as (…)

• Sugar’s Bitter Policies

  18 February 2010, by Kobad Ghandy

  The following article on the present rise in prices of sugar has been written by Kobad Ghandy, the CPI (Maoist) leader now lodged in Ward No. 8 of Tihar Jail No. 3. Though suffering from prostrate cancer and incarcerated in prison he retains an alert mind as is reflected in the following article sent specially for publication in this journal.
  At Rs 50 per kg sugar prices have never been so high. With sugar prices soaring, prices of all sugar linked products—sweets, mithais, tea etc.—have (…)

• Alternative Agricultural Policy in the Specific Context of Climate Change

  18 February 2010, by Bharat Dogra

  Much before the adverse impacts of climate change started manifesting themselves, it had become evident in the interests of equality, justice and sustainability that certain significant changes need to be made in agricultural policy. With the increasing manifestation of adverse impacts of climate change and warnings of worse to come, the urgency of these changes has become much more pronounced.
  If we look not just at agricultural but the overall change in policy, it is very clear (…)

• Statehood for Telangana: The Current Stalemate

  18 February 2010, by C.H. Hanumantha Rao

  The following article has been sent by the author for publication in this journal for the benefit of its readers. He is a follow-up to his earlier article, “Regional Disparities, Smaller States and Statehood for Telangana”, published in Mainstream (March 7, 2009).
  The newly created smaller States, namely, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, have achieved much higher growth rates in their GSDP than the targets set for the Tenth Five Year Plan, whereas the growth rates achieved by their (…)

• Gandhi’s Champaran Struggle

  18 February 2010, by Girish Mishra

  Two epoch-making events took place in 1917. The first was the Bolshevik Revolution in November that ended the Czarist rule over Russia and heralded the dawn of socialism in the world. The second event that did not immediately appear very important to people outside its locale proved to be the beginning of the end of foreign rule over India and sounded the death-knell of British imperialism. It took place in Champaran, a district of Bihar, about which not much was then known in other parts of (…)

• How Communal Division of J&K State was Averted

  18 February 2010, by Balraj Puri

  Encouraged by the announcement of the formation of a separate Telangana State and provoked by the report of the Justice Sagheer Ahma headed Fifth Working Group on Centre-State Relations in J&K, appointed by the Prime Minister, the movement for separation of Ladakh from Kashmir region has gained fresh momentum and the issue of a separate Jammu State is again being debated.
  A former member of the Jammu State Morcha recalls how the movement for a separate Jammu State was sabotaged (…)

• Building a Strong Opposition in India

  18 February 2010, by Shree Shankar Sharan

  Building a strong Opposition in India, after the main Opposition, the BJP, has started to fall apart for lack of an ideology or strategy and the ruling party seems wedded to globalisation of the economy, has become imperative to underpin a strong democracy. The BJP has run out of steam after its emotive Hindutva programme itself has run out of steam and development has become the core issue for the electorate. With the tight ethos of discipline in the Congress party and a lack of culture of (…)

• Syndicate of Terrorism and ‘Af-Pak-Ind’

  18 February 2010, by Ninan Koshy

  During his visit to New Delhi in the third week of January, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that the Al-Qaeda had formed a “syndicate” of terrorist groups with Taliban factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He said that the Al-Qaeda was using proxy terrorist organisations to orch-estrate attacks in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of a broader strategy to destabilise the region. Gates added that the Al-Qaeda was aiming also to provoke a war between (…)

• Wooing our Neighbour?

  18 February 2010, by Priyanka Singh

  The visit by US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, was immensely significant for the India-US strategic partnership, perceived to be shaky under the Obama Administration. Gates’ primary agenda was to clear hurdles in defence ties and bolster negotiations on pending military pacts such as Logistics Support Agreement and similar other agreements. Afghanistan and Pakistan figured prominently in his talks with the Indian establishment. Gates referred the Afghan situation as crucial for regional (…)