Corruption. It is part of the “4 Ps” Have you heard of the 4 P's? They are the 4 things wrong with India. #1) Population, #2) Pollution, #3) Politics. The #4) Pakistan. (India and Pakistan do NOT get along) So now you know the 4 P's.
Regardless of that, my point is that India is known for its political corruptions on a number of different levels. Everyone knows about it, and it is never hidden but it is more prominent especially come election time. Today, April 13th, is election day and in the last few weeks people were buzzing about the local elections.
Political leaders here in India go to great lengths (outrageous really) to make sure that they are re-elected. One thing India is known for is people. Lots of people. So if you have the numbers behind you and some persuasive tricks up your sleeve you are pretty much guaranteed the spot of your choice in government whether local or state. How about handing out free Plasma flat screen TV's? Yup. Seriously. Free TV’s. It has also been known that certain campaigns will go into the outskirts of neighborhood villages and bring enough alcohol into the villages to get every man and woman drunk and then truck them into town to vote forcing them to vote for their particular party. Promises are also made of more alcohol or even better, clean drinking water facilities or some such other nonsense that is never actually given.
Although it has happened and not an uncommon sight for the slums here in India to all be hooked up to cable and plasma TV’s be in every makeshift, mud and garbage cardboard home. I am not kidding. I would love to have a picture to prove this to you, but it is the truth. People who live in the worst living conditions in the world here in India, so impoverish, and hungry, and barely clothed can have a nicer flat screen than an average American as long as they vote the way of the these persuasive but incredibly corrupt politicians. Isn't this just crazy?
During election season you are not allowed to be in public meetings of any kind after 9:00 PM. To some this is serious oppression but I suppose it makes sense if there is so much political corruption going on.
I read an article today that is trying to prevent all parties to do this sort of thing, to trick or skew the vote. I am not sure if it will actually do anything to prevent such occurrences in the future, but at least they are tyring to do something to stop it. Corruption like this stems out further as the offering and taking of bribes is so commonplace. If you want to get your luggage that was lost you pay a bribe. If you want to actually progress in a line (ANY LINE) you can bribe. If you get pulled over for a traffic violation you are supposed to pay the cop. If you want your passport to be printed or reissued you bribe.
This is every day occurrence we have even participated in from time to time to ensure we got what we needed when we needed it. The country encourages this, and it is flat out corruption affecting all levels of society. India is one of the 140 countries that has signed the UN Convention against corruption. There are some major campaigns in circulation trying to ratify the Convention. But signing alone is not enough. The government is under no pressure to make its anti-corruption laws stricter. This is a video from this website I found asking the people of India to come together and let their government know the importance of changing these ideals into laws that actually punish those to are undermining democracy—undermining India. Big names in Bollywood and respected Caste members have gone on hunger strikes to ensure a less corrupt government election season.
For the last few weeks there have been random police checkpoints set up where the police pull you aside to check your car for large quantities of cash being smuggled to particular places for corrupt government parties. Millions of dollars have been confiscated this way by the police. One car alone had the equivalent of over 9 Million US dollars that was confiscated during a random police checkpoint here in Chennai just this last week. So much corruption and on so many levels makes this a tough battle to fight. This election day might be interesting.
yes India is got deep problems, really bad corruption.
ReplyDeleteBut America is no better, its politicians are sometimes worse off and seem a bit barbaric.
All they can think of is spend billions on war machinery and simly kill people off.
Atleast in India people are not violent or war mongerers like the american psycho generals. You american psychopaths!
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI think your comments are way off base. First of all, we were not trying to put down India in this post or act like America has it all figured out. There is definitely political corruption in America, just a different type.
Secondly, Americans are not warmongers. We do not go into countries just to kill people. Our government has reasons and justifications for any military action they take, even though some people will sometimes disagree with those reasons.
Thirdly, the actions of governments (either in America or India) does not mean that the people in general are violent or not violent. There are plenty of violent people in India and plenty of non violent people in America.
its true,india is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. hopefully, recent developments will bring about change. we have come a long way in the last 20 years or so. but we have a longer way to go.
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