Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Dialogue in Democracy: Challenges for Government-Maoist Talks

  8 December 2009, by Manoranjan Mohanty

  Public opinion in India seems to be building up strongly in favour of a dialogue among the government and the Maoists. This is despite the clear indications that the Central Government is going ahead with its preparations for launching the armed offensive in the Naxalite movement areas. Yet there are signs from both the government and the Maoists that they were amenable to the idea of talks.
  Central-level Dialogue
  One thing is clear: the Central Government has taken the initiative in the (…)

• Securing a Nuclear Weapon Free World

  8 December 2009, by Saurabh Kumar

  This article was written before PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to the US as the first state guest to be hosted by President Barack Obama in the White House. But it is being published here in view of the undiminished validity of its contents.
  I. A Historic Opportunity Beckons
  More than six months after US President Obama’s public declaration of “America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” (and that “the US will take concrete steps toward a world (…)

• Nuclear Issues: Pokhran Row

  8 December 2009, by R. Ramachandran

  DISCUSSION
  Since the days of the Shakti series of Pokhran-II underground nuclear tests, conducted jointly by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) more than 11 years ago, controversy over the yields of the devices tested, in particular that of the thermonuclear device, or hydrogen bomb (S1), has refused to go away.
  The devices of May 11, 1998—S1, S2 and S3—were exploded simultaneously as the shafts S1 and S2 were (…)

• Very Serious Scientific Data Falsification by Ramachandran-Chidambaram

  8 December 2009, by Ashok Parthasarathi, K. Santhanam, P K Iyengar

  A careful, in-depth study, of Graphs 4 and 1 of Ramachandran’s September 25, Frontline article “Pokhran Row” reveals:
  a) Graph 4 is titled: “Gamma-Ray Spectrum of a Typical Sample of a (H-bomb) Thermonuclear Test”—not of the specific H-bomb test conducted on May 11, 1998!
  b) The vertical ‘Y’ axis of Graph 4 is merely titled “Counts”
  c) There are no numbers at all on the ‘Y’ axis of both Graphs.
  Serious mistakes of physics have been committed here
  i) (…)

• India Needs a Stronger Partnership with Russia in the Emerging Multipolar World

  8 December 2009, by Arun Mohanty

  Indo-Russian relations took a serious beating in the aftermath of the sudden disintegration of the Soviet Union. Russia under Yeltsin and Kozyrev, in their unprecedented enthusiasm to de-ideologise the country’s foreign policy, made an attempt to reorient its policy towards the West and treat India at par with Pakistan, an US ally in the Cold War era. Russia voted in favour of the Pak proposal for denuclearisation of South Asia, diluted its stand on Kashmir declaring it a disputed territory (…)

• HCUSU Elections: Status of Democracy and Lyngdoh Committee’s Recommendations

  8 December 2009, by K. Rama Krishna Reddy

  Lyngdoh Committee’s Recommendations and Students’ Union Elections The Lyngdoh Committee was appointed by Government of India in 2005 under the chairmanship of the former Chief Election Commissioner of India, James Michael Lyngdoh, to frame the guidelines on Students’ Union elections in Colleges/Universities as per the directions issued by the Supreme Court of India. Its report was submitted by the Committee on May 23, 2006. The Supreme Court in October 2006 ordered that the Lyngdoh (…)

• PM in US, BJP on Mat, Sena on Rampage

  28 November 2009, by SC

  “Yours is the first official state visit of my presidency, it’s fitting that you and India be so recognised.” With these words President Barack Hussen Obama warmly welcomed PM Manmohan Singh in the White House on November 23.
  The US head of state, whose momentous and resounding presidential election victory precisely a year ago was greeted by millions across the globe (and they included countless Indians savouring the breathtaking event in the world’s most powerful democracy), spoke (…)

• ‘There can be No Greater Betrayal or Crime in a Democracy’

  28 November 2009

  The Liberhan Commission was set-up to probe the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Justice M.S. Liberhan submitted the Commission’s report to the government on June 30, 2009—after 17 years and numerous extensions. The government tabled the report (running into almost 1000 pages) and the 13-page Action Taken Report in both Houses of Parliament on November 24, 2009, a day after The Indian Express carried large parts of the Liberhan report thereby triggering a (…)

• US’ Dalliance in Beijing is Short-lived

  28 November 2009, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Discourse between India and Pakistan can be deceptive—like when cats hiss. You can never quite tell dalliance from discord. The fact remains that at different levels, despite their occasional shrill rhetoric, contacts have been going on between Delhi and Islamabad, including some unprecedented highly sensitive lines of communication, which neither side publicises. India has also kick-started parallel efforts aimed at reaching out to Kashmiri opinion, with Pakistan in the loop.
  At the (…)

• Brace Yourself, Crisis will Worsen!

  28 November 2009, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  Leaders of the global economy are pleased these days. Chairman of the US Federal Reserve Bank Ben Bernanke sees ‘green shoots’ showing up on the economic landscape. Master investor Warren Buffet has claimed that ‘the financial panic is behind us’. I have doubts, though. It seems to me that it is instead likely that the world economy will slide into a yet bigger crisis in the coming two-to-three years.
  Hope of recovery comes from the pick up in growth rate in the United States to a (…)