Mainstream Weekly

Black Money Criminals — Who will Catch the Big Fishes?

A K Dasgupta — 2011-03-28T19:08:03Z

Introduction
The ghost of “Black Money” stashed in Swiss banks continues to haunt the Government of India. The recent disclosure that more than 100 Indians have deposited their ill-gotten money in these banks and the consequent uproar had forced the government to announce, on January 25, 2011, the appointment of a multi-disciplinary committee to look into the matter. However, the Finance Minister (FM) has refused to disclose the names citing legal problems entailing inter-national treaties (…)

- 2011

Kannabiran — the Fighter for Your Rights

A K Dasgupta — 2011-01-31T01:03:00Z

TRIBUTE
It is with a deep sense of grief and sorrow that I write this piece to report the sad demise of Kandadi Gopalaswamy Kannabiran, affectionately called Kanna. He passed away on December 30, 2010, at the age of 81, after prolonged illness. The Amnesty International (AI) has hailed him as “a passionate advocate for human rights”.
Born on November 8, 1929 in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) to Kandadi Gopalaswamy Iyenger and Pankajan, he had his early early education in Nellore where his family (…)

- 2011

Great Loss to the Media World

A K Dasgupta — 2009-10-11T10:50:50Z

COMMUNICATION
I am sorry to learn that the veteran journalist and media critic, G.S. Bhargava, passed away on September 22. It is a great loss to the Indian media world. I had been an avid reader of his writings in Mainstream and his Sunday column “Blue Pencil” in The Pioneer when Vinod Meta was its editor. The Editor's Guild in a statement had aptly summed up his contributions thus: “The Blue Pencil column was looked forward to by journalists with both eagerness and uneasiness, as he was (…)

- October 2009

Gandhiji—Missing Nobel Peace Laureate

A K Dasgupta — 2008-10-08T12:04:47Z

The question why Gandhiji was never chosen for the Nobel Prize came to the fore again when Geir Lundestad, the permanent Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, after the announcement of the 2006 award to Muhammad Yunus and the Gramin Bank of Bangladesh, observed, “Our record is far from perfect and not giving Mahatma Gandhi the Nobel Prize was the biggest omission”.1 A candid admission indeed! On an earlier occasion, a similar sentiment was expressed by Equil Aarvik, the Chairman of the (…)

- October 4, 2008

Barriers to Historical Research: Restrictive Accessibility to Public Records

A K Dasgupta — 2007-12-25T22:08:26Z

The revelation of archival expletive stuff on Indians in general and Indira Gandhi in particular from the Nixon-Kissinger era is a sharp pointer to the imperative need for relaxing the irrational restrictive policy regarding access to our own archival resources. This sensational disclosure was possible only because of the willingness of the Office of the Historian of the US Department of State to part even with information that has the potential of damaging the reputation of the government. (…)

- December 22, 2007 - Annual Number 2007

Correct Diagnosis of CPM's Political Ailments

A K Dasgupta — 2007-05-14T01:58:14Z

COMMUNICATION
Even nearly two decades back Nikhil Chakravartty correctly diagnosed the political ailments of the CPI-M when he wrote in his column in the Mainstream (August 25, 1990):
Nobody denies that the Congress-I is a discredited outfit in West Bengal. But this by no means indicates a growing swing to the Left. Rather there is not only disenchantment but ramblings of discontent at the ground level. In this context, a ruling party can gain if it displays humility and an eagerness to (…)

- May 12, 2007