2016

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article5785.html

by Rup Narayan Das
President Pranab Mukherjee visited China from May 24 to 27. It was the most significant visit of the year in the narrative of the relationship between the two countries. Earlier in 2010, his predecessor, Pratibha Debising Patil, had visited China. Both India and China attached considerable strategic significance to the visit. The visit took place at a very critical strategic juncture in the bilateral relations between the two countries. In the first place China’s vetoing (…)

by Michael Todd
Lately the US has been taking persistent steps to induce states which have signed the agree-ment on Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to ratify it. The Obama Administration intends to launch a US-centric free trade area in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of the year, presenting this as a real achievement against the backdrop of its obvious failures in foreign policy in other areas.
The US President himself has authored an article that appeared in Washington Post on May (…)

This article brings out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s views on what happened in the past. In that sense it carries considerable value. The author’s own analyses of Putin and his views are of secondary importance.
Many of India’s Communists and fellow- travellers remain touchingly devoted to the Russian Federation on the mistaken notion that it is the land of socialism. They are plainly nostaligic. But viewing contemporary world politics in bipolar terms can only provide a myopic (…)

impressions
In politics one party’s shukradasa depends on another party’s shanidasa. The stars are so propitious for the BJP these days that other parties are struggling to figure out how they can re-position the planets in order to survive. Since the planets are a-political, they may have no objection in giving all players equal oppor-tunity. But the saying is “half by me, half by God”. Who is to do the by-me half that will persuade the heavenly bodies to do the rest?
Forget the (…)

There is little possibility of peace returning to the Arab world in the near future. No sooner than fighting stops in one area, it erupts in another. Federal structures in it have collapsed, like in Iraq, and the conflict between Sunnis and Shias is unlikely to end. Rival powers like Saudi Arabia and Iran are not going to reconcile.
The post-colonial Arab system has reached a crisis. The Arabs themselves say the impact of colonialism, which had created their odd borders, has been the cause (…)

by Hasan Hamidullah
This article was sent to us for publication before PM Narendra Modi’s latest visit to the US but it could not be published earlier due to unavoidable reasons. Hence it is being belatedly published now as the relevance of most of its contents remains undiminished.
The international community of experts has noted that in the last three years the development of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) grouping has had positive dynamics. The transition to (…)

COMMUNICATION
From many parts of country news is pouring in of growing resentment of villagers against the government policy of opening more and more liquor vends in rural areas. This helps the government to increase its earnings and in addition politicians are also eager to please liquor contractors and manufacturers for their own selfish reasons.
However, in the process of increasing the earnings of State governments and liquor traders and manufacturers, the health and peace of (…)

EDITORIAL
The last few days have seen several major developments on the domestic front.
The government went out of its way to widen the doors to ensure more Foreign Direct Investment last Monday (June 20). This was termed as “radical liberalisation” of the FDI regime with the easing of norms for entry of such investment in a host of major sectors like defence, civil aviation and pharma-ceuticals—in fact these have been opened up for total foreign ownership.
The more significant step (…)

Some harshest mistakes have been mollified by straight repentance by the perpetrators. The post-War Germany apologised for the atrocities committed by Hitler and even paid the reparations. Not that the sins committed were forgiven but people generally felt that the children and grandchildren of their parents and grandparents have tried to make amends.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went to the Golden Temple at Amritsar to say sorry for ‘Operation Bluestar’ when the Indian Army (…)