Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to PM on the 25th Anniversary of Bhopal Tragedy

  12 December 2009, by Abdul Jabbar Khan, N D Jayaprakash

  Respected Sir,
  On behalf of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (BGPMUS) and the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti (BGPSSS), we, the undersigned, are baffled and shocked over the UPA and the Congress party’s silence regarding the 25th anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
  We cannot help notice that your honourable self had led the nation in paying homage to the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 25th death anniversary. We gather from personal (…)

• Grim Warning from Bhopal

  12 December 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  It was a massacre of innocents by all counts. What happened at the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal in the early morning of December 3 was not just a tragedy but a heinous crime which killed nearly two thousand and hospitalised many more, it brings out something much more ghastly than the hazards of modern industrialisation.
  The enormity of the crime—unprecedented in our times—lies not merely in any negligence on the part of the workers and superintending staff behind the leakage of the (…)

• A Rare Case of Wit and Wisdom

  12 December 2009, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Among the Prime Ministers of India, who was the most intellectually proficient? The temptation is to point to Jawaharlal Nehru, the Cantabrigian who conversed with Bernard Shaw and Albert Einstein, who wrote classical books and masterpieces of English prose like the Tryst-with-destiny speech and the description of the Ganga in his last will and testament.
  But, as in all human affairs, don’t glamour and charisma give an edge to Nehru’s appeal? By the same token, doesn’t (…)

• Changing Perception of US Policy towards China under Obama

  12 December 2009, by Rajaram Panda

  President Obama’s foreign policy orientation towards East Asia seems to be characterised by continuity rather than change. Amidst much hype, Obama’s East Asia policy is not much different from his predecessors. However, one possible negative fall-out of such a policy can be that while paying more and more attention on the hotspots of the so-called war on terror, continuity of policies towards East Asia will shade into complacency, leaving the Administration to constantly making efforts to (…)

• Obama’s Visit to China

  12 December 2009, by Gunjan Singh

  President Barack Obama became the first American President to pay a state visit to China while in his first year in office. China was the third stop during the latest trip of the President to four Asian states. He visited Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea. He started the tour by visiting Japan, the closest American ally in the region. But what turned out to be most significant was the President’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart. Considering that China is the rising power and the (…)

• Need to Realise Full Benefits of the Protective Law for Tribals

  12 December 2009, by Bharat Dogra

  At a time when there is growing concern about the causes of increasing discontent and alienation among tribals, it is important to recall a very important law for improving the governance of the Scheduled Areas in such a way as to protect the interests of tribals. The reference here is to the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (briefly called the PESA law). If this Act had been properly implemented then many causes of discontent and alienation could have been removed by now (…)

• Poetic Justice!

  12 December 2009, by Ranbir Singh

  The encouragement and patronage of the then Speaker of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, Harbans Lal, prompted the then Chairman of the Panchayat Samiti, Adampur (Hisar), Bhajan Lal, to join State politics in 1965. The defection of the Congress MLA from Adampur, Hari Singh Dabra, in 1967 facilitated his success in getting the Congress ticket in the 1968 mid-term elections. The defection of the only Bishnoi MLA, Mani Ram Godara, also made his task easier as Bhajan Lal was the sole serious (…)

• Cogent Analysis of Terrorism and Governance

  12 December 2009, by Vijay Kumar

  BOOK REVIEW
  Between Terrorism and Global Governance by Roberto Toscano; Har-Anand Publication; 2009; pp. 109; Price Rs 250.
  This lean but compact book hardly running into 100 pages on global governance and terrorism represents relevant and profitable fusion of academic approach with the operative insight gleaned from the experience of working as a professional diplomat in different capacities in different fora of the world. The author has identified the causes and offered concrete (…)

• A Banana Republic Indeed!

  12 December 2009

  COMMUNICATION
  The common man has always considered the judiciary to be the last resort of relief. This hope has been belied by the MP High Court’s verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. What a silver anniversary gift! The shameful fact that no one has yet been held responsible for the ghastly crime, adds insult to the injury suffered by the living dead of Bhopal. This case has once again proved as to how cheap human life is in our country. Whose life is it, anyway? Not that of a Minister, (…)

• Politics of Disability Estimates in India: A Research Note

  12 December 2009, by Vikash Kumar

  Introduction
  The phenomenon of disability is one of the pressing problems in the world. According to the projections of international agencies, about 10 per cent of the population are affected with physical, mental, sensory and other forms of impairments and around 75 per cent of the disabled population are concentrated in the rural and inaccessible areas of the developing societies. This data is based on recent studies carried out in various developed and developing countries as also (…)