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Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

economist.com

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Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#41

Post by nitrogen »

aisofteng wrote: post #34
anondon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The videos you linked were so hard to watch. > India is a land of lawlessness and that's a reality. It's a little more subtle : well connected people to whatever they want and get away with no consequences. People who dare to oppose these powerful people discover the true meaning of hell. It's true practically everywhere in the world including the US. IMO for all the shit that social networks receive (for good reason…

>People who dare to oppose these powerful people discover the true meaning of hell. It's true practically everywhere in the world including the US. It can be true in the US, but it definitely is not the norm. This statement rings false. For all the problems the US has, yes including corruption in some places, it is almost entirely unique in its freedom of speech and its allowance for political opposition without fear…

It may not take exactly the same shape in the US, but a friend of a friend employed by some billionaires was injured on the job, and when the employee made a workplace injury claim, the company sued the employee. They play other psychological techniques to keep the other employees from speaking up or leaving. [Deliberately vague]

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#42

Post by somedangedname »

andrewvijay wrote: post #28
rameshdsouza wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's pushing his propaganda on HN, that's all ;)

Propaganda? What propaganda do you see here exactly? Your relentless support to the govt when the topic is about the criminals in the govt is really disgusting dude! I dont know if you just created a profile just to comment here. Wont be surprised!

Is there an Indian equivalent of the 50 Cent Party?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#44

Post by helloindia »

alokyadav15 wrote: post #21
andrewvijay wrote: post #2

I'm an Indian and can verify that. A lot of scumbags keep winning and hold onto power here usually by hook or crook. In fact even the prime Minister modi was on a mass murdering case of Gujarat 2002. He was the chief minister when the riots Happened!! That guy has still not even apologized or said sorry to the families whose people were killed. The current govt has the largest share of criminals in power. There are s…

What about 1948,1986,1992,2013... Riots , why always whining about Gujrat or you think that only in gujrat riots politicians were involved ?

With your logic, since politicians are always involved in Riots, it's ok that Modi was also involved in Gujarat Riots?

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#45

Post by sudshekhar »

>Mr Vaishnav dispels the conventional wisdom that crooks win because they can get voters to focus on caste or some other sectarian allegiance, thus overlooking their criminality. If anything, the more serious the charge, the bigger the electoral boost, as politicians well know.

Nothing in the article backs up this statement. I hope when the author publishes his book, somebody will point out why.

I believe caste and identity politics play a huge role in such elections. Thefts and crimes are ignored precisely because people think that XYZ crook(from their caste/community) has the courage to stand up to authority and will represent them properly.

Different communities promote up their own representatives and as the elections becomes dirtier, in the end only crooks from various communities stand up.

Kind of similar to how capitalism forces merchants to sacrifice most skills not relevant to 'reducing cost/making money', Indian politics does this to our MPs/constituencies. Money and muscle power become a pre-requisite for being considered as a possible electoral candidate.

Then again, the advent of social media and the internet has started changing things (I don't have stats to prove this though). Crimes committed by MPs (or their families) are being highlighted throughout the country and the guilty are being shamed. I use the word shamed because I am not too sure what happens once the media spotlight moves somewhere else. Possibly, they walk free...

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#46

Post by RestlessMind »

There are some comments in this thread bringing out examples of corruption in the West. While Western societies are by no means perfect and have their own warts, they are much better than India when it comes to corruption, effective judiciary, free press or tolerance for scandals.

People typically vote with their feet. If you have any doubts about which society treats its citizens better, just look at how many Indians are clamoring to get out of India and immigrate to USA/Europe and the numbers of Americans/Europeans wanting to immigrate to India.

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#47

Post by credo »

India does have a high level of criminality and corruption in politics, but it is different from the U.S. in one aspect.

An Indian politician who brags about sexual assault and doesn't even deny video-taped evidence of the bragging .... would have no chance of being elected as Prime Minister. As we demonstrated in November, American voters have a much higher tolerance level when it comes to electing our president.

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#48

Post by lovemenot »

sonink wrote: post #37

Article sounds racist, but this is the economist after all. Here is the thing - If you look at the past 5 Prime Ministers of India and compare them to the past 5 Presidents of the US, you will find that India more or less throws up much better candidates than the US for the top spot. If Indian politicians had such a criminal record, this would be unlikely the case.

I cannot imagine why you'd think The Economist is generally a racist publication. Have you ever read it? Really? I do not get such an impression from TE at all and I read it often.

As to this article, The Economist is reviewing a book by a third-party. If the facts are correctly quoted from the book, the book's sources are correct and the item is newsworthy, I see no problem at all with such a book review.

There need be no racial motivation for pointing out institutional failings in any country. India is an important country in so many ways, and the readers of The Economist would surely want to know about politics there.

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#49

Post by adrianN »

sonink wrote: post #37

Article sounds racist, but this is the economist after all. Here is the thing - If you look at the past 5 Prime Ministers of India and compare them to the past 5 Presidents of the US, you will find that India more or less throws up much better candidates than the US for the top spot. If Indian politicians had such a criminal record, this would be unlikely the case.

What's racist about it?

Re: Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record

#50

Post by sonink »

peteretep wrote: post #40
sonink wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you buy votes if the ballot is secret ? Not saying that people don't try, and there is that odd politician who does come only from money. By and large most chief ministers victory can be explained not by money, but more by identity/group based politics. This is pretty much also exactly the same to what happens in the US.

> How do you buy votes if > the ballot is secret? Is this a rhetorical question? The answer is by distributing 2,000INR notes to people and transporting them to the polling station, relying on reciprocity and promising more to come if you get elected.

No its not rhetorical and your answer is naive at best.

People in India will take money if you give it to them, but they will vote on identity only. This is because there is no reciprocity - once the voting is done the politicians have no incentive to pay them again and they don't. The only reciprocity that exists, if at all, is along identity and everyone gets it.

Take a look at any CM in any state of India - their win is largely explained by identity and not money. The current PM who was two time CM of a state, doesnt even have a house to his name.

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