Ugly Truth about India
In the wake of yesterday’s defeat of Hindu nationalists in India’s elections — and the resultant euphoric market surge — Gideon Rachman gives a timely reminder of the nasty side of every international capitalist’s favorite South Asian nation:
In most countries when politicians are slammed as “criminals” this is simply vulgar abuse. In India, it is often the literal truth. The British public, currently hyperventilating about expenses fiddles in the UK parliament, might be interested to know that 128 of the 543 members of the last Indian parliament had faced criminal charges or investigations, including 83 cases of murder. In a poor society, gangsters can and do use muscle and money to force their way into parliament.
That does rather put western political corruptions into perspective, doesn’t it?
More importantly, the grim reality of Indian democracy somewhat undercuts the great globalists’ delusion, which portrays India as the marvelous democratic “success story” of recent years. The West has pinned so much false hope on this idea, seeing India as our one great ally in the South Asia region — a bulwark against Radical Islam and the sinister East. In doing so, we have largely ignored the ugly truths behind India’s triumphant democracy.
PS Here again is an excellent review by Septimus Waugh on the subject of India. (Subscribers only, I am afraid. Why not sign up?)
Democracy and a fear of the executive always produce some protected 9with legislative immunity) shadiness in the legislative branch.
A good part of India’s government-protected criminality, I suspect, is in the excessive regulation that produces large number of “switches” at which thieves can sit and collect tolls (bribes).
Our governments, local, state and federal are not entirely free of corruption of the sort you see in India. Our advantage lies in a population that is often pissed-off when it is informed of shenanigans by public servants by a free and capitalistic press. In India, as I understand from reading various biased news sources (The Economist and the NY Times), the people are true populists, who are somewhat numb when it comes to corruption.
I’m just happy that the BJP, India’s Hindu nationalist party, didn’t win. They’ve earned themselves a terrible reputation by harassing Muslims and Christians, especially converts to Christianity from Hinduism.
Add in two big losses by India’s Communist party (in Kerala and West Bengal, the latter province housing Calcutta), and I’d say that liberty in India had a pretty good day, considering.
Criminals and corruption in politics are not unique to India. It’s just that in the West, the cover ups are far more efficient.
That does rather put western political corruptions into perspective, doesn’t it?
Yes, a country called Italy comes to my mind:
http://www.societacivile.it/memoria/articoli_memoria/dossier_economist.html
Maybe something like this will jog Freddy Gray’s memory when it comes to the long history of corruption amongst British politicians:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jun/13/comment.armstrade