2016

by R.G. Gidadhubli
It is indeed a historic event that leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India broke ground on the December 13, 2015 giving a big push to the long awaited TAPI gas pipeline project linking Central Asia and South Asia. This ceremony was held in Turkmenistan’s southern city of Mary in the Karakorum desert which is an important location on this proposed pipeline route. Some basic facts are as follws: the project will be costing about $ 10 billion; the total (…)

by Zainab Akhter
Background
The India-Pakistan conflict is categorised as one of the most enduring due to its continuity and longevity since the division of the sub-continent albeit with varying degrees. The crux of the dispute is largely over Kashmir, territories and water, besides a nuclear arms race since 1998. The unresolved disputes over time have resulted in deep-rooted mistrust and hostility between the two nations with a deep impact on the dimension of inter-state and societal (…)

by R.B. Sreekumar
By merely reiterating his earlier statement on Ishrat Jehan, killed by the Gujarat Police, in collaboration with the Central IB, David Coleman Headley did not provide any fruitful and significant inputs facilitating further probes by the Indian security agencies. Earlier also Headley stated that Ishrat Jehan was an LeT operative, without related information about her network and hierarchy in the LeT and specific operations carried out by she and her friends in India and (…)

Editorial
As we approach yet another Republic Day our thoughts invariably go back to Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the architect of the document embodying our Constitution, that imparted meaning and substance to the freedom we achieved from foreign rule on August 15, 1947. That document was adopted on January 26, 1950 precisely 66 years ago.
The events of the last few days have traumatised the entire nation beyond measure. The suicide of a Dalit research scholar, Rohith Vemula, in (…)

January 30 this year marks the sixtyeighth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s martrydom. On this occasion we remember him by reproducing some of his writings and utterances in the last phase of his life that remain highly relevant today.
Gandhi for Today
Shaheed Saheb Suhrawardy and I are living together in a Muslim manzil in Beliaghata where the Muslims have been reported to be sufferers. We occupied the house on Wednesday, the 13th instant, and on the 14th it seemed as if there never had (…)

On January 23 this year falls Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s one hundred and nineteenth birth anniversary. On this occasion we are carrying the following excerpts from Netaji’s writings and speeches for the benefit of our readers.
Every great movement starts from small beginnings, and so it will be in India. Our first task will be to gather together a group of men and women who are prepared to undergo the maximum sacrifice and suffering which will be necessary if we are to attain success in (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
The birth centenary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is to be celebrated by the country shortly. The government has set up a National Committee under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister for the purpose. It is scheduled to hold its first meeting this week. Consisting of 72 members, of whom about 50 are non-officials and the rest is made up of Ministers, Chief Ministers and Governors, the National Committee has been entrusted with the task of celebrating Netaji’s birth (…)

I mean no disrespect to Republic Day awardees. Except a few who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields, the rest have made the grade because they have connection, however remote, with the ruling party, this time the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The earlier regime of the Congress party was also guilty of promoting its own people for the honour.
This is, however, contrary to the thinking of framers of the Constitution. They banned awards. That is the reason that when the (…)

The following is the text of the letter that the Editor of Mainstream sent to the President of India on January 27, 1990 detailing the reasons for his inability to accept the Padma Bhushan award conferred on him on Republic Day that year.
NIKHIL CHAKRAVARTTY, 35 Kaka Nagar Editor Mainstream New Delhi-110003 Ph.: 697419
January 27, 1990
To The President of India
Sir,
On my way back home today after an extensive tour abroad, I find that you have conferred on me Padma Bhushan on the (…)

It is a grave misfortune of a nation of 1.25 billion people that their HRD Minister is a lair, a damn lair. Her press briefing in the evening of January 19, 2016 on the suicide of Rohith Vemula is a bundle of lies, distortion and falsification. She has no parallel; nor morals. She has forfeited her credibility as a Union Minister in charge of a portfolio that has responsibility to train minds, enlighten lives and dispel the darkness of ignorance and orthodoxy. Her press briefing was aimed to (…)