Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Indonesia Today: Post-Election Reassessment of the Military

  25 October 2009, by Navrekha Sharma

  The following article reached us quite sometime back but could not be used earlier due to unavoidable reasons. However, in view of the undiminished validity of its contents, it is being published now. —Editor
  Indonesia’s second direct presidential election on July 8 took the country a step forward in consolidating the amazing democratic experiment it started 12 years ago. The financial crises of 1997, the end of 32 years of authoritarian rule under President Soeharto in 1998, the (…)

• Stop Offensive, Hold Unconditional Dialogue

  25 October 2009

  DOCUMENT
  The following is the resolution adopted at the National Convention of the Citizens Initiative for Peace held in the Capital on October 20, 2009. The convention was addressed, inter alia, by Justice P.B. Sawant, Prof Randhir Singh, Aruna Roy, Surendra Mohan, Prof G. Hargopal, Sandeep Pandey, Ajit Bhattacharjea, Prof Manoranjan Mohanty, as well as representatives from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orisssa, West Bengal; victims of state violence in Chhattisgarh also gave testimony of (…)

• Deserved Recognition for a Courageous Step

  17 October 2009, by SC

  Electioneering in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh having come to an end, polling for the elections to the three State Assemblies took place today. According to preliminary information, there was moderate to heavy polling in the three States—whereas Maharashtra had the lowest turnout, that is, over 50 per cent, in Haryana the figure was 65 per cent while Arunachal Pradesh recorded the highest (72 per cent). The results are due on October 22.
  What is striking is that despite (…)

• Pakistan warns India to ‘Back Off’

  17 October 2009, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The Indian embassy in Kabul has been targeted for bomb attack for a second time in the past 15 months. At least 17 people were killed in the October 8 attack, when a car loaded with explosives rammed into the embassy’s compound wall.
  The Indian chancery is not far from the presidential palace and, ironically enough, just across the road from the Afghan Interior Ministry. Needless to say, the Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, have shown they have the capacity to (…)

• What has Driven the Tribals of Central India to Political Extremism?

  17 October 2009, by B K Roy Burman

  According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 125 districts spread over nine States in Central India and adjoining areas have come under the influence of Left radical groups, loosely called Naxalites. On June 22, 2009, the Government of India has declared the most important among the Naxalite groups, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), as a terrorist organisation and banned it.
  The precursors of the present phase of Naxal activities first surfaced in Naxalbari of (…)

• Tagore and Victoria Ocampo

  17 October 2009, by K. Natwar Singh

  Earlier in the week The Asian Age carried a news item about a film being made on the Rabindranath Tagore-Victoria Ocampo friendship. I doubt if the name Ocampo is known to many in India today. Tagore too is a distant memory.
  The film, Thinking of Him, is to be a joint Indian-Argentinian venture about the ‘Tagore-Ocampo Love Story’. It is to be directed by the Argentine film director, Pablo Cesar, who will be in India next week. He is coming with the Argentinian President, Cristina (…)

• World Bank’s Reforms: Different Image, Same Tune?

  17 October 2009, by Mitu Sengupta

  In February 2009, the World Bank’s Governors approved the first of a series of reforms aimed at amplifying the voice and influence of developing countries inside the World Bank Group. The centerpiece of these much-awaited reforms is an additional seat for Sub-Saharan Africa on the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors, a change that will allow developing countries a majority on the Executive Board. The reforms, which also seek to bring the share of developing countries in the Bank’s voting (…)

• How World Bank Prevents Development

  17 October 2009, by Bharat Jhunjhunwala

  Two models of economic development are available to us. The first model is of centralised development. The big businesses will lead smaller ones in this model. Big industries will buy parts from small vendors. They will also provide loans for setting up vendor units through their banking subsidiary. The growth and progress of the vendors is wholly dependent upon the growth of the big unit. The second model is of decentralised development as we see in a large number of lock-making units in (…)

• The Valley of Incongruities

  17 October 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Whatever may be the substance of the much-advertised point of difference between Peking and Washington over the question of détente, it may be safely assumed that Gerald Ford’s talks with Mao Tse-tung and his cohorts explored the further potentialities of Sino-American collusion, particularly in the countries of the Third World. Angola shows the enormity of this entente while the happenings in Bangladesh underscores this danger in our immediate neighbourhood.
  The Sino-American (…)

• Use Doha Round to Correct Past Mistakes of the WTO Regime

  17 October 2009, by Bharat Dogra

  Concerted efforts have been made to give a new lease of life to the Doha Round of WTO negotiations. The question before us is: what is the most relevant role which this revived round of trade talks can play? If we take an overview of the entire international trade scene and the changes that have taken place ever since the WTO was created (including the negotiations which preceded the WTO’s creation to replace the GATT) then the most credible answer to this question is: the most relevant and (…)