Mainstream Weekly

Our Task Today

SC — 2008-12-21T22:21:10Z

As Mainstream stands on the threshold of the fortyseventh year of its existence, the national scene resembles the one that prevailed at the time this journal was founded. Shortly after Mainstream made its appearance in 1962 came the perfidious Chinese aggression that tragically cut short the life of Jawaharlal Nehru, our first PM, and the nation was in the throes of a grave danger of disunity and destabilisation, while the future was full of uncertainty.
Likewise India today has been (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Embrace Fidel Castro: Historic Opportunity for Obama

L C Jain — 2008-12-21T22:18:20Z

[(The fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution falls on January 1, 2009. Against that backdrop the following article acquires added significance. —Editor)]
Imagine Barack Obama inviting Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader, to his inauguration ceremony. That will make history. With that one act, Obama, as the resident of the White House, can bring radical transformation in the relationship between the US and Cuba.
Even a cursory reading of My Life: Fidel Castro [as narrated by him to (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Ten Poems on Bhagat Singh

2008-12-21T19:54:06Z

[(These poems have been sent to us, for publication in Mainstream Annual 2008, by Professor Chaman Lal, Chairperson, Centre of Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, with the following note: “While searching for writings on Bhagat Singh, I came across some poems on Bhagat Singh in the P.C. Joshi Archives of the JNU, New Delhi. It was a pleasant surprise for me as these poems are collected from Home Ministry files. These are proscribed poems published in different Indian (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Bhagat Singh ki Murat (Statue of Bhagat Singh)

Fahmida Riyaz — 2008-12-21T19:26:15Z

There is news from Delhi alas! Alas!! What a mess they have made Of Bhagat Singh In the Parliament Complex!
For sixty years they petitioned The British rejected him But YOU! Our own government. Erect his statue in the Parliament Complex At last the government thumped its chest and said why not! and erected the statue in the Parliament Complex. But when the veil was lifted You discover it is not Bhagat Singh That 24 year old beautiful lad Nor his young limbs that they could not properly (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Why V.P. Singh Must Be Defended

Ajit Bhattacharjea — 2008-12-21T19:23:31Z

[(Former PM V.P. Singh passed away in New Delhi on November 27, 2008. He had been at the centre of controversy for having implemented the recommendations of the Mandal Commission Report thereby introducing reservation for OBCs. In that context and because of his bold stand in upholding secular values in the wake of L.K. Advani's rath yatra at that time, the following lines were written just before VPS was forced to lay down office on November 9, 1990. This article by veteran journalist Ajit (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Some Aspects of Self-Sufficiency in Energy

Chaturanan Mishra — 2008-12-21T19:21:10Z

It is well known to the government that coal will continue to be the main energy source of our country for the coming several decades unless some huge deposit of gas and oil is found or some new invention takes place. Hence after independence in the slogan for self-sufficiency considerable emphasis was given for developing coalmines particularly in the Second Five Year Plan. After globalisation and the ‘Washington Consensus' when foreign money was available on a large scale, instead of (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

For a New Crusade

Nikhil Chakravartty — 2008-12-21T19:19:29Z

The fortitude with which the people of India have been putting up with the bankruptcy of the country's political leadership has few parallels in history.
Particularly for the last three years, politics has been vitiated by such extraordinary incompetence and unbridled corruption that one has no difficulty in asserting there could be no future for this nation if its destiny has to be controlled by those who are today strutting about on its stage. From Sanjay Gandhi to Kanti Desai and then (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

On Nexus between CIA and Mossad

Syed Shahabuddin — 2008-12-21T19:17:26Z

[(COMMUNICATION)]
The article “Terrorism Inc.—Nexus between CIA and Mossad” by Shyam Chand (Mainstream, November 15, 2008) suffers from one inaccuracy. India recognised Israel in 1949 but never established diplomatic relations with it. So the question of Nehru severing it after the attack on the Suez Canal does not arise. In 1991 the Narasimha Rao Government established diplomatic relations and embarked on developing economic and defence cooperation with Israel which blossomed under (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Lexicon of Insolence!

D. Bandyopadhyay — 2008-12-21T19:15:38Z

Politics of language and language of politics are two fascinating cousin disciplines in the larger sorority of political theory and practice, human behaviour and social anthropology.
A language carries with it the basics of sometimes conscious but more often subconscious mind-set of a people of their fundamental political structure. A small illustration may clarify the point. We have been a Republic since January 26, 1950. But do any of the local languages, say, Bengali, Assomia, Hindi, (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008

Myth and Reality of Capitalism: Neo-Liberalism and Globalisation

P R Dubhashi — 2008-12-21T19:12:18Z

Prof Galbraith of Harvard University had been, through his copious and widely read books, a sustained critic of unbridled capitalism and its adverse consequences on the living of the common people. Thus in his celebrated book, The Affluent Society, he drew pointed attention to the glaring contradiction between private opulence and public squalor. In his New Industrial State, he showed how the operations of the “techno structure” of the corporations which now dominate the economy, have (…)

- December 20, 2008 - Annual Number 2008