Mainstream Weekly

Fragility of Our Secular System

SC — 2007-09-26T14:19:42Z

The issue of Ram Setu has suddenly become the focus of national attention overriding the basic questions related to the Sethusamudram project. Whereas the entire project should have been subjected to close scrutiny on ecological grounds and other questions like those connected with the displacement of fisherfolk from the area, the debate has been hijacked by the controversy over the affidavit filed on behalf of the Union Government and prepared by the Archaeolo-gical Survey of India wherein (…)

- September 22, 2007

Wheat Imports Lack Rationale

Kamal Nayan Kabra — 2007-09-26T14:18:03Z

A mammoth foreign exchange outlay is to be incurred by the Government of India as it goes ahead with import of 7.95 lakh m. tonnes (MT) of wheat at the weighted average price of $ 389.45. Statedly, the imports are for meeting the shortfall in the buffer stock at a weighted average price of $ 389.45 by December 2007. This is in addition to the decision to import, again based on international tendering, 5.11 lakh MT in July this year at a price lower by 18 per cent compared to the price (…)

- September 22, 2007

Letter to President, PM, Sonia Gandhi on Ram Setu and Sethusamudram Project

S G Vombatkere — 2007-09-26T14:16:23Z

Dear Madams/Sir,
The issue at hand in the current Ram Setu controversy is whether the strip of submerged land connecting India with Sri Lanka is natural or created by human intervention, and not whether Lord Rama is a real or mythological character. The scientific data shows that the strip of land is natural. Anybody who denies the existence of Lord Rama in the minds of the people is certainly misguided and perhaps also ill-motivated.
It is piquant that those who now oppose the (…)

- September 22, 2007

Reality behind the Bush Smokescreen

A Gopalkrishnan — 2007-09-26T14:13:15Z

When a US President signs a bill into an Act, he may issue a written statement implying that he differs with certain provisions of law in that Act, due to reasons he indicates in the statement. Such documents, called “Presidential Signing Statements”, were used by several past Presidents mainly to clarify constitutional positions, but the more recent ones have increasingly contained one or more challenges or objections to the laws being signed. The objections are usually on the grounds that (…)

- September 22, 2007

Report of a Conference on Indo-US Nuclear Deal

2007-09-26T14:11:31Z

A Conference was held on September 13, 2007 in New Delhi at the initiative of former Prime Minister V.P. Singh on the theme of “Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Implications for Democracy and Sovereignty”. Besides V.P. Singh those who spoke at the meet included Dr A. Gopalakrishnan, former Chairman, Atomic Energy Regulation Board; A. B. Bardhan, General Secretary of the CPI; Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the CPI-M; RSP leader Abani Roy; Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas; Dr Meher Engineer, (…)

- September 22, 2007

India and the US in 'nuclear deal' - The Tribal and the Moneylender

Jean Dreze — 2007-09-26T14:09:14Z

Those who applaud India's “nuclear deal” with the United States would do well to read Gopinath Mohanty's beautiful novel Paraja, where hapless tribals often make “deals” with the local sahukar (moneylender), who has overwhelming power over them. For instance, young men go to the sahukar when they are in dire need of money to get married (bride-price was customary among the Parajas of Orissa), and agree to work as bonded labourers until the money is repaid. But the sahukar keeps shifting the (…)

- September 22, 2007

In the Wake of US Double-Standards

2007-09-26T14:07:10Z

The US State Department's sanctions against Russian military equipment and weapon producers within the framework of the “counter Iran non-proliferation” law do not enjoy any international legitimacy. The true reason behind these American sanctions under such an invented pretext is related to the Russian special exporters' success in the world military market at the expense of US military concerns; additionally the imposition of these sanctions is linked to the US objective of containing (…)

- September 22, 2007

Chicken-heart

Nikhil Chakravartty — 2007-09-26T14:05:52Z

The unprovoked shooting down of an Iranian civilian airbus by the US warships in the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf on July 3 killing nearly 300 innocent lives, has shocked the world public.
In a pathetic bid to cover up this ghastly crime by the American armada, President Reagan called it “a terrible human tragedy” but sought to justify it by saying that it was “a proper defensive action” by the US Navy. Through a series of false insinuations, the US Chairman of the (…)

- September 22, 2007

Indo-US Nuclear Deal, Congress and CPM

2007-09-26T14:04:03Z

Does the nation deserve the caricature being enacted by almost all the political parties, particularly the Left, over the proposed Indo-US nuclear deal? It must be admitted that the Congress, in spite of its penetration by Washington followers like Manmohan Singh and P. Chidambaram and the presence of weathercocks like Pranab Mukherjee, has at least shown some amount of consistency although it has always been on the predictable line of kowtowing to US interests. The BJP lost credibility by (…)

- September 22, 2007

Independence of Contradictions

Amna Mirza — 2007-09-26T14:02:22Z

Here comes the echo of celebration of sixty years of India's Independence. The by-lanes of history have another story to tell. Fifteenth August, 1945 was the day when the Second World War came to an end, after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. The aftermath of the nuclear holocaust continues to haunt the psyche of humanity till today. The nuclear race unleashed after this event has been unprecedented in its own. The question of stockpiles and dangers of annihilation (…)

- September 22, 2007