Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Whatever happened to Netaji?

  7 December 2014, by Apratim Mukarji

  BOOK REVIEW
  The Search for Netaji: New Findings by Purabi Roy; Purple Peacock Books and Arts Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata; Rs 430.00.
  One enquiry committee and two commissions have so far probed the reported death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the Taihoku airport in Formosa (Taipei) on August 18, 1945, appointed at different times by three Indian governments. Their reports were placed in Parliament in 1956, 1974 and 2006, and yet nobody seems to be sure of how the intrepid Indian actually died. (…)

• Positive News from Kathmandu, Kashmir

  1 December 2014, by SC

  EDITORIAL
  The 18th SAARC Summit concluded in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, on a positive note today. Its most significant outcome was that of the three agreements on rail, motor vehicles and power grid connectivity which Pakistan was blocking till date, the last one—that is, the energy pact—has been cleared: finally Islamabad has relented and allowed it to materialise.
  This concrete achievement apart, the 18th SAARC Summit was marked by some other positive features. Mention must (…)

• Gandhi amidst Swachh Bharat Abhiyan?

  1 December 2014

  by Dev Pathak
  Beneath the shadow of the grand announcement of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there is a hotbed of questions. They deserve due deliberation in public forums, political as well as apolitical. For, the Abhiyan’s connection with Gandhi shakes awake some of the old debates and some new ones. The questions seeking for public deliberation are three-fold and interspersed with critical observations.
  Firstly, what is the (…)

• 2014 Assembly Elections in Haryana: A Paradigm Shift in State Politics

  1 December 2014

  by Ranbir Singh
  The 2014 Assembly elections in Haryana have brought about a paradigm shift in the politics of the State. The BJP, which had won only four seats in a House of 90 in the 2005 elections, has been able to enhance its strength to 47 on the basis of a 24.16 per cent increase in its vote-share.
  This unprecedented success of the party has to be ascribed to the following factors. Firstly, the formation of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre was bound to impact Haryana which (…)

• On the Brink of Collapse: Nuclear Agreement with Iran

  1 December 2014, by Ninan Koshy

  There was great expectation that the majestuc Coburg Palace Hotel in Vienna would witness the signing of an epoch-making agreement heralding dramatic changes in international relations, especially in West Asia. But unfortu-nately that did not happen.
  The negotiations between P5+1—the USA, UK, Russia, China, France, Germany—on one side and Iran on the other on Iran’s nuclear programme did not collapse, but failed to make a comprehensive agreement at Vienna by November 24, the deadline set (…)

• Black Diwali for Rural Daily Wage Earners

  1 December 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  While economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya have been supporting the Modi Government’s initiative to squeeze out the operational area of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (the NREGA scheme) and confine it to the country’s poorest 200 districts, nearly a thousand workers engaged with the scheme observed Black Diwali against the government’s move to dilute it.
  It is indeed an irony that once again a public spat has surfaced (…)

• Two Contributions by P.N. Haksar: Relevance of Gandhi-Nehru Nexus ; Fundamentalism and Secularism

  1 December 2014, by P N Haksar

  ON P.N. HAKSAR’S SIXTEENTH DEATH ANNIVERSARY
  November 27 this year marks P.N. Haksar’s sixteenth death anniversary. On this occasion we offer our sincere homage to one of the country’s foremost thinkers by reproducing the following contributions by the former Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. Haksar’s role as an eminent administrator and distinguished diplomat would remain indelible in the history of post-independence India.
  Two Contributions by P.N. Haksar
  Relevance of (…)

• Russia Signs Military Pact with Pakistan

  1 December 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  When a Russian Defence Minister comes to Pakistan after a gap of fortyfive years, it becomes a landmark event both in the bilateral relations between the two countries and in regional politics. And on top of it, there is much symbolism that Sergey Shoigu came to Pakistan on November 20 in the second leg of a tour that first took him to China at a defining moment in Russia-China strategic ties.
  It’s too early to connect the dots—not at least until President Vladimir Putin undertakes a (…)

• In-Laws and Outlaws: Travails of Bihar CM Jitanram Manjhi

  1 December 2014, by A K Biswas

  The righteous hype in the print and electronic media in the first week of November 2014 targeting Jitanram Manjhi, the Bihar Chief Minister, seemed a little out of proportion, if not unprecedented. The big story is that his son-in-law was appointed his personal assistant and nephew a peon. Their orders of appointment, issued by the government in the Cabinet Secretariat department, were violative of the rules in place. The Cabinet Secretariat was, however, free to point out the mistake and (…)

• In-laws and Outlaws: Travails of Bihar CM Jitanram Manjhi

  1 December 2014, by A K Biswas

  The righteous hype in the print and electronic media in the first week of November 2014 targeting Jitanram Manjhi, the Bihar Chief Minister, seemed a little out of proportion, if not unprecedented. The big story is that his son-in-law was appointed his personal assistant and nephew a peon. Their orders of appointment, issued by the government in the Cabinet Secretariat department, were violative of the rules in place. The Cabinet Secretariat was, however, free to point out the mistake and (…)