Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Mixed Signals

  24 November 2009, by SC

  While Parliament’s winter session opened on a stormy note today with the entire Opposition in the Lok Sabha disrupting its proceedings by protesting against the Union Government’s new sugarcane price regime that strikes at the root of offering remunerative price for sugarcane especially to farmers in UP and discourages the States from fixing a higher cane price, the most positive development of the day was the Bangladesh Supreme Court upholding the High Court verdict handing over death (…)

• CIA’s Clandestine Plans in Afghanistan

  24 November 2009, by Benjamin Todd

  The CIA and Democrats in the US Congress have lately come in conflict with each other on the clandestine attempts by the Agency’s officials to formulate plans for hunting down and killing, in the aftermath of 9/11, terrorists with the help of commando teams as was done by Israel after the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre. This has been revealed by an erstwhile senior US official, according to influential sections of the American media.
  Officials of the CIA’s undercover spying wing, which (…)

• We welcome the reports that the Government of India and the CPI (Maoist) are agreeable to the idea of talks

  24 November 2009

  We welcome the reports that the Government of India and the CPI (Maoist) are agreeable to the idea of talks. In the present situation talks are the only way to come to a resolution of any problem, however difficult it may be.
  We reiterate that the talks should be unconditional, and that they should be held at the central level. We propose the following steps to expedite the dialogue:
  1. Security forces should not move forward and should cease all operations.
  2. (…)

• The Meanness of Mean India

  24 November 2009, by Kamal Wadhwa

  Even a cursory glance at the daily newspaper reveals the economic mindset and the manipulation of that mindset into losing its sense of balance and well-being by the plethora of reports, articles and stories on the economic life of the Indian nation. There are all sorts of stories, statistics, credit appraisals, banking trends, FDI investment couched in the jargon of the modern economy that, curiously enough, seems to be so incongruous with the rickety jalopy that is the real India—the India (…)

• Whither Rural India?

  24 November 2009, by Kripa Shankar

  The rural population is at present estimated at 85 crores. Ten per cent of the households are completely landless. Another 52 per cent have holdings of less than 0.2 hectare. The per capita agricultural land in the rural areas has come down to 0.12 hectare. According to the National Sample Survey, the annual income of an agricultural household from farming is less than Rs 12,000 and from all sources it is less than Rs 25,000. The yield per hectare is now stagnating; so are the cases of the (…)

• West Bengal: Bye-Election Lessons

  24 November 2009, by Barun Das Gupta

  The result of the ten bye-elections to the West Bengal Assembly held on November 7 has made several things clear. First, that the CPI-M’s political influence over the traditionally Left-minded people of the State is fading fast, its fear-some organisational strengh notwith-standing. Second, that Mamata Banerjee has emerged as the undisputed leader of the people’s struggle against the three-decade-old misrule of the CPI-M in the name of the Left Front. The battle is being and will continue to (…)

• Has India a Policy on Myanmar?

  24 November 2009, by Ninan Koshy

  With the visible shift of Washington’s policy on Myanmar, New Delhi seems to be rethinking its own relations with Myanmar.
  It may be more correct to speak of an Indian approach to Myanmar or India’s relations with that country rather than of a policy. While certain assumptions or considerations behind the approach are evident, Myanmar rarely finds a place in India’s foreign policy formulations or perspectives, in spite of the stakes being very high.
  The time has come to (…)

• Genetically Engineered India

  24 November 2009, by T J S George

  Prolonged court cases, the Supreme Court’s intervention, scientists’ arguments and vociferous campaigns by civic groups have amounted to nothing. The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has allowed commercial cultivation of the dreaded Bt brinjal. If this decision is ratified by the Government of India, some 170 of our commonest food items will also become chemically altered. Rice and wheat, potatoes and onions, mustard and bananas will all be genetically manipulated for us. (…)

• Save Brinjal, Save Ourselves

  24 November 2009, by K Saradamoni

  For some time brinjal, a vegetable which in no way can be called exotic, and eaten in different forms by people in most parts of the country, has attracted media attention and is now caught in a tussle. The contending parties are the State and Central governments, activists working on safe food, protection of the environment, organic cultivation and the American agro-business company Monsanto. Before proceeding we have to be clear of two abbreviations which are important in the present (…)

• New Delhi Meeting’s Call: Repeal AFSPA

  24 November 2009

  A meeting of representatives of civil society groups and individuals of J&K and the North-East as well as in the Capital took place at New Delhi from November 12 to 14, 2009 for launching a people’s campaign for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The following resolution was unanimously adopted after detailed discussions on the subject.
  We, the civil society groups from Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East affected by militarisation and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (…)