Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Failed Economics and Logjam of Secularism

  8 August 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  Whether the Congress failed secularism or secularism failed the Congress, the issue is yet to be resolved. But like the blame-game that erupted in the Congress just after its rout in the Lok Sabha elections, attempts are being made to trace the genesis of the electoral drubbing in the wrong and amateur handling of the highly sensitive subject of secularism. It is being argued that the Congress might not have suffered this amount of drubbing if the leadership had handled (…)

• Black Economy in India, its Global Dimensions and Impact on Policies: Some Critical Issues

  8 August 2014

  by Arun Kumar, Saumen Chattopadhyay, A. Sunil Dharan and Pawan Kumar
  On assuming office, the NDA Government has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) as per the directive of the Supreme Court to tackle the menace of illegalities and to look into the possibility of bringing back funds stashed abroad. With the issue of corruption dominating the political discourse lately, a three-day seminar on the “Black Economy in India, its Global Dimensions and Impact on Policies” was organised at (…)

• Our Country and Our Times: Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela

  8 August 2014

  by Saumya Deojain
  The following is an account of the programme held at Indore on Sandarbh’s annual day where Venezuelan
  Ambassador Ms Milena spoke about the Bolivarian Revolution at length.
  It was June 28, 2014 and the venue was the Indore Press Club. The evening started with tea, exhibition and music. The last picture of Chavez along with other Latin American revolutionary legends and their quotes surrounded a bookstall outside the hall where people slowly trickled in. Sandarbh had (…)

• India’s Stout Resistance to the TFA

  2 August 2014

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  While UP continues to be rocked by communal riots, the latest one being at Saharanpur after Moradabad, not to speak of Muzaffarnagar (where incessant communal bloodletting culminated in the inevitable rise of the RSS-led BJP under the steward-ship of Narendra Modi), and Hindutvavadis feverishly seek to saffronise education, something new has happened lately.
  India under the Modi dispensation has taken a firm stand at the General Council meeting of the World Trade (…)

• Devils’ Dance on the Malaysian Plane Tragedy

  2 August 2014, by Arun Mohanty

  It is interesting to watch that after a week of full-blown Russia-bashing following the Malaysian Boeing crash in Donbas sky that took 298 innocent lives, there is an intriguing lull in the international media in its campaign to malign Kremlin for the tragedy. There were irresponsible and unfounded accusations by the US, Ukraine and international media that made Russia directly responsible and then targeted the pro-Russian rebels in the east of Ukraine for the Malaysian Boeing crash that (…)

• Bouquets and Brickbats for BRICS

  2 August 2014, by Uttam Sen

  There is both jubilation and restraint in the air that after the financial crises in the global, particularly Western, financial system, a practical manifestation of alternative, arguably supple-mentary, agencies has emerged in the form of the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) set up by the BRICS countries at their sixth annual summit in Fortaleza, Brazil. The exhilaration could be integral to the materialisation of an idea that has been on the anvil for (…)

• BRICS — End of Western Dominance of the Global Financial and Economic Order

  2 August 2014

  by Shyam Saran
  The sixth BRICS Summit, which has just ended in Brazil, marks the transition of a grouping based hitherto on shared concerns to one based on shared interests.
  Since the inception of BRICS (bringing together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in 2009, it has been seen as a mainly flag-waving exercise by a group of influential emerging economies, with little in terms of convergent interest other than signalling their strong dissatisfaction over persistent Western (…)

• Interdependence Among Brics Nations

  2 August 2014

  by Asif Nazar
  The world is as vulnerable to liquidity shocks as it was earlier. There is no foreseeable escape at present. But a grouping of nations based upon strength and conviction is the need of hour. These groups may or may not be as cohesive as groups formed by the developed nations but could be as determined and professional as groups representing developed economics. The will-power and determination of such groups may act as shields during crises. BRICS is one such group, though (…)

• Colonial Hangover, Hindutva, Police Reforms

  2 August 2014, by Kuldip Nayar

  Imagine renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore seeking admission to the Calcutta Club, a preserve of the British, and getting rejected. Faiz Ahmad Faiz, the legendary Urdu poet, receiving a similar treatment at Lahore’s Punjab Club in Pakistan, and Nazrul Islam at the Dhaka Club. In all these cases, the public outrage would have been difficult to assuage.
  The White rulers saw to it that the leading clubs in a country where they had ruled remained an exclusive place for them and their elitist (…)

• Iraq Crisis and Gujral Government

  2 August 2014, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  The following article, which appeared in this journal sixteen years ago, happened to be the last contribution of N.C. in Mainstream. It is being reproduced now due to its relevance in the context of the External Affairs Minister’s latest assertion in Parliament that the Modi Government was following the footsteps of the one headed by I.K. Gujral on West Asia.
  Outgoing Prime Minister Inder Gujral can hardly take the credit for his quietude over the American response (…)