2011

The following is the statement issued to the press by Abhay Sahoo, President of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), and Prashant Paikeay, the PPSS spokesperson, on January 31, 2010.
The decision of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to give a comprehensive okay to the POSCO India Steel Power Production-Captive Port project, based on some additional conditions, is nothing short of a total sell-out to the politics of power and international capital. In a climate where each and every (…)

by Arindam Chaudhuri
The kind of double standards practised by America for decades, even as it arrogantly talks about democracy and preaches the virtues of free speech, dissent and human rights to the world from a pulpit, is a shame to say the least. The fact is, be it Latin America, Asia or Africa, America has always supported brutal dictators who have tortured and killed their own citizens in the most horrific manner.
During the Cold War, America used to argue that propping up (…)

On Monday, January 17, while I was waiting at the Frankfurt airport for a connecting flight to Dublin, my eyes were drawn to an editorial in the Financial Times, European edition. The editorial read: “The Jasmine Revolution: Tunisians rid themselves of a corrupt old order”. This editorial made a valid point: noting the collapse of autocracy in Tunisia, it reiterated the notion that no nation will forever be able to endure political repression, denial of civil liberties and rampant corruption (…)

The two regional powers most affected by the turmoil in the Middle East are going to be Iran and Israel. Life sometimes offers strange parallels. There is much in common between the two intractable adversaries.
These two non-Arab countries appear curiously “stable” in a region caught in a maelstrom. No one points an accusing finger at either as the “hidden hand” behind the turmoil in their neighbourhood—not even their worst detractors. In fact, both seem taken by surprise by the (…)

FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
The opening of the St Kitts case brings in a new dimension to the corruption and misdeeds of those who had been in power till yesterday. From the Bofors to the telecom scandals one was getting accustomed to the maxi-bribery involved by Ministers in office—in short, what’s called the kickback category. Compared to it, the house allotment scam and the petrol pump distribution apart from the fodder scam scandal are a part of corrupt deals in which money passed through (…)

[(TRIBUTE
K. Subrahmanyam, 82, India’s pioneering strategic thinker, passed away in New Delhi on February 2, 2011. He leaves behind his wife, three sons and a daughter; while one of his sons, Jaishankar, is currently our ambassador in Beijing, another son, Sanjay, is a historian teaching at the UCLA, and a third, Vijay, is a Secretary in the Government of India.
As The Times of India has aptly observed editorially,
“The demise of K. Subrahmanyam… should be an occasion to reflect on (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Obama’s Wars by Bob Woodward; New York, London, Toronto, Sydney: Simon & Schuster; 2010; pp. 441; price: US $ 30.
There is a general perception and practice of referencing the American political system headed by the US President as the success case of democracy and federalism based on the ‘general will’ of the American citizens and elected representatives. There is also a common belief all around the world to regard the office of the President as the symbol of the (…)

It was widely reported in the print media that G.D. Gautama, the Home Secretary of West Bengal, in his affidavit before the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court in the Netai killings affair, hesitantly admitted the existence of illegal armed intruders in that village while denying any knowledge of the existence of similar harmad camps elsewhere in the Jungle Mahal area. One cannot avoid applauding his gallantry in holding our national motto “Truth Shall Prevail” in utter disdain to proclaim his total (…)

The author of India’s China War (1970), Neville Maxwell is a well-known specialist of the history of Sino-Indian border conflict. He was for eight years the Times correspondent in India. We are publishing, as a point of view, this article he specially sent to Mainstream. He had earlier prepared a two-part article for The Indian Express as he was invited to write for it on the subject; however, for reasons unknown to him, the publication in the daily was withheld. Thus he has written in a (…)

NEW SOCIALIST INITIATIVE (NSI), DELHI DEMANDS
The following is the statement issued by the New Socialist Initiative (NSI), Delhi Chapter in the wake of the brutal assassination of the Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer, in Islamabad on January 4, 2011.
History is said to be made when humanity has tried to break asunder the forces of unreason, irrationality, bigotry, intolerance and reaction which keep reappearing in newer forms in its onward journey. But what can one say when it tries to do (…)