Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Is the Ice Melting?

  13 December 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  Suddenly there was summer. A chance 160-second meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif has melted the ice, which seemed frozen beyond change. The about-turn indicates that the differences have been exaggerated. The ego, which is probably the real reason, needs to be tackled.
  India was stuck on the stand that it would not talk anything else except terrorism as was the crux of the joint statement issued after their meeting at Ufa, Russia. Pakistan saw no purpose in (…)

• Turkey and Red Line in India-Russia Friendship

  13 December 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  Having lived and worked as a diplomat in the ‘Soviet space’ and in Turkey for over a decade of the best years of my life, the current tensions playing out between these two historical rivals present an engrossing case-study where terrorism mixes with good-neighbourly relations and make a heady brew — especially since I also devoted nearly a decade of my professional career to the India-Pakistan relationship with which strong similarities exist.
  For a start, what are these similarities? (…)

• Saudi-US policies led to IS. Ignore this fact and face the ‘Islamisation of Europe’ scare

  13 December 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Western powers have pooled their formi-dable military resources to punish ISIS for its terrorism. But they may not succeed because they are themselves the Frankensteins who produced the monster through the agency of Saudi Arabia. The founders of the Saudi dynasty began it all with policies of unspeakable cruelty justified in the name of religion. In the imperial games and oil politics that developed subse-quently, Saudi Arabia became—and continues to be—an ally of the West and (…)

• My Take on Award Wapsi

  13 December 2015

  by Mathew Varghese
  Award wapsi has suddenly become fashionable among the writers and artists. The number is growing steadily. There is so much intolerance how can we be silent?—is the rhetoric. Don’t you call it a rhetoric! It is a rational and logical way to protest against the intolerance in society. But why now? You gladly took it because it was the previous government and now that the government has changed you are finding an excuse to embarrass the government.
  But my concerns are (…)

• Resurgence of the Communist Revolutionary Force in Bihar

  13 December 2015

  by Arun Srivastava
  In globalised India, the Left appears to be in a state of inertia; losing initiative and ideological mooring. With the state abandoning its responsibility towards the people, its inclusive growth and empowerment, the Left forces, the CPI-M, CPI, and others, have lost the will to intervene and organise the poor. On the plea of introducing reforms and promoting rapid economic growth, the ruling classes have adopted the strategy of refashioning the role of the state and (…)

• Bihar Election Results: Time to Introspect!

  13 December 2015

  by Sudhanshu Tripathi
  The stunning victory of the “Mahagathbandhan” in Bihar has left the main Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, shell-shocked, which will have to review its strategy that failed to convince the electorate. Indeed, it is high time to ponder as to what can be the fate of democracy in India and how can the country present itself in the comity of nations as a modern, liberal and progressive society as well as polity.
  Although the results of Bihar Assembly (…)

• Unfortunate Woman

  13 December 2015, by Sangeeta Mall

  WOMEN’S WORLD
  ‘Oh poor India!... How sad! The country, whose male population is unkind, unreligious and unaware of the distinction between good and evil and doesn’t care about justice and fairness and where abiding by rituals is the chief preoccupation of religion, should not give birth to girls!’ In the 19th century, noted social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar gave this lament. Have things changed much since then?
  Last year I happened to spend a few hours at Dubai Airport. As I sat (…)

• Revisiting the World of Keya

  13 December 2015, by Arup Kumar Sen

  Keya Chakraborty (1942-1977) was a legendary actress on the Bengali stage in the late 1960s and 1970s. She died a mysterious death while shooting for a Bengali film, Jeevan Jey Rakam (Life as it is). She jumped into the Ganges from the boat in a particular scene and was washed away. The body was recovered with multiple injuries.
  I did not have a chance to see Keya Chakra-borty’s acting. I saw her once as a school boy on the Annual Sports Day of Scottish Church College where she taught in (…)

• Human Rights: Basic Issues

  13 December 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Human Rights Day is observed on December 10 every year commemorating the day, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To mark the occasion we are reproducing the following article N.C. wrote twentythree years ago.
  The government’s decision to set up a National Human Rights Commission is a significant indication of its being able to read the signs of the times. The Prime Minister has made the eloquent claim about (…)

• NREGA in Punjab — A Cause for Concern

  13 December 2015

  by S.C. Sharma
  The following is a study based on the results of a field survey undertaken by the author for the Research Project “Impact of NREG Scheme on Rural Economy of Punjab: A Case Study of Three Districts“. The project was funded by the UGC, New Delhi.
  Introduction
  Numerous studies have been undertaken to assess the impact of the NREGA scheme on poverty, gender equity and asset creation among all the States having implemented the scheme including Punjab. The review of literature (…)