Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• On the twentieth anniversary of Hong Kong’s sovereignty having been resumed to the People’s Republic of China

  11 July 2017, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  On July 1, 1997 Hong Kong came back to the People’s Republic of China from Britain. On the twentieth anniversary of Hong Kong’s sovereignty having been resumed to the PRC, we are reproducing the following article written by N.C. on that historic event. It was published twenty years ago on July 5, 1997 in Mainstream.
  Sun Sets on the British Empire by Nikhil Chakravartty http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article5785.html

• The Retreat of Liberal Democracy

  11 July 2017

  by Saumitra Mohan
  The world seems to be moving increasingly backward with the march of time much to the chagrin of all Panglossian expectations of the humanitarian values bringing about an eclectic, cosmopolitan and catholic human society. The incursions of regressive and retrograde forces on liberal-democratic ethos of our times are more stark and insidious today than ever before.
  When the Berlin Wall came down in September, 1990 or when the former USSR disintegrated, people like (…)

• Bangladesh is Hungry for Power: Nuclear Power is the Only Solution

  11 July 2017

  by Monaem Sarker
  Bangladesh plans to have two large Russian nuclear power reactors in operation, the first from 2023. This is to meet rapidly-increasing demand and reduce dependence on natural gas.
  Bangladesh produced 56 TWh gross in 2014, giving per capita consumption of 320 kWh/yr. Some 46 TWh in 2014 was from natural gas and 8 TWh from oil (IEA data). The electricity demand is rising rapidly (nine per cent in FY 2013) and capacity was 11.3 GWe in January 2014, plus some 500 MWe of (…)

• Small Scale Sector in Conflict with Monopoly and Finance Capital

  11 July 2017, by Anil Rajimwale

  In the course of its development, capitalist production gets stratified into various layers and sectors, each with its own characteristics, place and role. In fact, in its early phase, capitalism was dominated by ‘laissez faire’ or free competition. There were numerous indi-vidual and private entrepreneurs, owners, workshops, mills and factories, which competed with each for capital, raw materials, finished products, profits and market. In principle and practice, they had equal access to the (…)

• 

  Tribute to Nirupam Sen

  11 July 2017

  TRIBUTE
  Nirupam Sen, 70, who passed away at a New Delhi hospital on Saturday (July 1, 2017) after having suffered a stroke followed by kidney failure, was truly an epitome of integrity and fearlessness in Indian diplomacy, qualities that are becoming increasingly rare these days.
  A brilliant student of St Stephen’s Collage, Delhi, he joined the Indian Foregn Service in 1969 and served in Indian missions in Moscow, Warsaw, Budapest, Oslo, Sofia, Colombo. His most important assignment was (…)

• Discussing Kashmir and the ‘Way Forward’

  11 July 2017, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  I try and avoid going for meets, seminars, conferences on the prevailing situation in the Kashmir Valley and also the grim realities facing the Muslims in India. The ‘why’ to this is rather simplistic: everyone is well aware of the horrifying ground realities; yet the state seems determined to implement the set RSS agenda it’s been entrusted with... One gets to hear the same set of ‘experts’ who have nothing very offbeat to offer in terms of fighting the agenda or its (…)

• 

  Indo-US Summit, Lynch-Mobs on the Rise

  1 July 2017, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  PM Narendra Modi has returned to the Capital after his visit to the US and talks with President Donald Trump, both of which have been termed as broadly successful. The success of the trip has been measured in terms of the “far more positive vibes” that one witnessed in the Modi-Trump summit than “several other recent summits involving Trump” like the one with Angela Merkel, the German President, as has been underlined by our former Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, now a senior (…)

• Why I think Ramnath Kovind is not the Right Candidate to be President of India

  1 July 2017, by Ambrose Pinto

  That the UPA and NDA have chosen Dalits to be candidates for the office of the President is an expression of the importance of the Dalit constituency in the politics of India. As a person with a public conscience, however, I tend to hold that the NDA candidate, Sri Ramnath Kovind, is a big disappointment. Though a Dalit, he has not served the Dalit cause all through the years of his politics. It is true, the BJP has an ideology of its own. One did not expect them to nominate someone beyond (…)

• What was Gandhi’s Caste and what did Congress Represent?

  1 July 2017

  by Ram Puniyani
  Volumes have been written on Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. There are diverse views about both. The views on them depend on the ideology of the person giving these views. To add to the prevailing views, recently (June 2017) the BJP President, Amit Shah, described Gandhi as a chatur (shrewd) baniya (trader caste). With this characterisation of Gandhi, Amit Shah joins the illustrious company of Jinnah who also called Gandhi a baniya, the caste of his birth. As such (…)

• Emergency Should Never Be Forgotten

  1 July 2017, by Kuldip Nayar

  Strange, in the process of selecting who should be the next President of India, the nation has forgotten the Emergency which was imposed some fortytwo years ago. More than one lakh people were detained without trial. The media, which could have reported the conditions prevailing then, was muzzled. Civil servants obediently issued the orders, which came from Sanjay Gandhi, the extra-constitutional autho-rity that ruled the country in the name of his mother, the then Prime Minster.
  The (…)