Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Colombo Restores New Delhi’s Faith

  28 September 2015

  Sri Lankan Premier Ranil Wickremasinghe’s visit to India (September 14-16) marked an important step in bringing India-Sri Lanka relations to healthy parameters on several counts, the most significant of which is the restoration of India’s faith in the policy-directions of the Sri Lankan Government.
  New Delhi’s confidence in Colombo’s intentions, both domestic and international, was completely eroded during the last few years (especially since 2009) of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. (…)

• Pressure Counter Pressure

  28 September 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Behind the angry protests and almost interminable complainsts of Cease Fire violations, there is a feeling in New Delhi about the overall situation with regard to Pakistan which, though not vocal, is significant.
  It is generally conceded here that a full-scale war between India and Pakistan is practically ruled out for the present. The theory that the cessation of hostilities provided by the Security Council Resolution is being utilised as a breathing space by (…)

• Liberation of Haji Pir

  28 September 2015

  by Javed Malick
  The operation in Uri sector across the Cease Fire Line will remain a golden chapter in India’s military history for a very long time to come. The story is marked with the indefatigable valour and unflinching determination of our officers and jawans.
  Advance towards Haji Pir was, however, an uphill task both figuratively and literally. It required a well-planned strategy and careful tactics.
  As you go westwards from the border village, Lagama (Uri sector), you have to (…)

• Unfurling Tricolour atop the Haji Pir Pass

  28 September 2015, by H K Dua

  For years after Independence and partition of the country, Haji Pir Pass was not much in the news. Even during the 1948 war in Kashmir it did not get as much display in newspapers as its strategic position warranted. After the ceasefire, Haji Pir Pass fell in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). It, however, continued to be present fairly prominently on the operational maps of the two armies — India’s and Pakistan’s, and the mental map of the strategic community on the subcontinent.
  I was (…)

• A Symbol of Unity and Harmony

  28 September 2015, by Bharat Dogra

  Maharana Pratap is one of the most courageous heroes of India’s history whose 475th anniversary is being celebrated this year. Pratap defended his much smaller kingdom of Mewar very bravely against the much more powerful forces sent by Akbar, the great Mughal emperor, in the famous battle of Haldighati. Later he continued his struggles from forests and hills with guerilla warfare-type tactics, and by the time of his death he was able to reclaim some of his territory and forts.
  This story (…)

• RSS - BJP Kinship

  28 September 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  If there was any iota of doubt about the links between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi dispelled it. He presented his key Ministers to the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, and asked them to provide information on the working of their Ministries. That the Prime Minister had no qualms about it was evident from the way the entire presentation was aired on news channels. He has been an ardent pracharak of the RSS before joining its (…)

• RSS Vision of Hindu Rashtra and Modi’s Governance

  28 September 2015

  by Arun Srivastava
  There is no more ambiguity. The Modi Government is accomplishing the task of the RSS to change the secular character of India and convert it into a Hindu Rashtra. The RSS is in a hurry but does not intend to show the urgency. It has been treading quite cautiously. It is aware that rushing through the agenda would alienate the huge population of India which is basically Centrist in character, if not secular, and jeopardise the functioning of the Modi Government, even mar (…)

• Ukraine tensions easing, but US won’t let go easily

  28 September 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The endgame in Ukraine appears to be struggling to be born. The German account of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the ‘Normandy Format’, which took place in Berlin on Saturday (September 12), struck a positive note. ‘Significant progress’; ‘less confrontational’; ‘made headway in some critical things’; ‘very close’; ‘now needs to be further consolidated and secured’ — the expressions used by the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his media briefing were meaningful. (…)

• An Open letter to Dr Shashi Tharoor

  28 September 2015, by A K Biswas

  Dear Dr Shashi Tharoor,
  Your speech, driven both by facts and thoughts, in Oxford University Union on July 22, 2015 on a motion Britain does owe reparations to India, has stirred up millions of Indians at home and abroad with patriotic fervour and admiration. But this is likely to provoke areas that are equally impelling to warrant thoughts for consideration.
  Let me elaborate the points to drive home the inherent dichotomy. A section—essentially the most influential one—will (or should) (…)

• A Rejoinder to Suryakanta Mishra

  28 September 2015, by Barun Das Gupta

  The CPI-M leader, Suryakanta Mishra, who wears the double-hat of the Secretary of the party’s West Bengal unit and leader of the party’s legislative wing, has given a long ‘inter-view’ to his party’s theoretical organ The Marxist (April-June, 2015 issue). The interview is an exercise in deceit, duplicity and plain dishonesty.
  Let us examine them one by one. The interview starts with the charge that “The repression that we have been facing in West Bengal today, four years after the changing (…)