"Normally they (Six members of India's Parliament) are in jail, serving time for crimes ranging from extortion and kidnapping to murder. The Indian constitution allows them out on bail to attend important parliamentary votes. But the sight of convicted murderers entering the parliamentary chamber won't be the most edifying of spectacles." So says a BBC report this morning.
In the wake of the Communist Party's pull-out from the Indian coalition in New Delhi, there is a vote of confidence scheduled for this week. The Indian government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is pulling out all stops to win this vote to salvage the US-India nuclear deal.
While many of the complex details of the deal appear shrouded in mystery, the deal essentially gives India access to US nuclear technology and nuclear fuel in exchange for putting some (not all) of its nuclear installations under IAEA's international safeguards on nuclear technology. It does not prevent India from continuing to develop and refine its nuclear weapons arsenal. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the supporters of the deal see it as the international community giving its nuclear program legitimacy, assuring its energy security and, they hope, set India on the road to superpower status. However, the opponents, led by the Communist Party of India, see the deal as a trap that will bind India into a strategic alliance with the United States with long term negative consequences. The opponents believe the nuclear deal, as it is being voted, is subject to the provisions of the Hyde Act, which could constrain India's nuclear program.
Members of parliament are being offered all kinds of incentives to vote a certain way. Both the government and the opposition are trying desperately to entice them with promises of largess, influence and plum jobs in return for their vote.
Here's more from the BBC: .".. wavering members of parliament have been busy speculating in public about what kind of job might persuade them to vote one way or another. The Ministry of Coal, perhaps, or the office of Chief Minister of the state of Jharkhand. That's politics, you might think. But a more serious allegation came from a communist leader, AB Bardhan, who suggested this week that the Congress party was trying to buy parliamentary votes for about three million pounds (six million dollars) each."
In an earlier post Pakistani Myths About India's Resurgence, I wrote as follows: "For those who sing the praises of India’s democracy, I would suggest viewing Bollywood hit “Sarkar Raj” that portrays the Godfather-like corrupt, criminal and murderous behavior of India’s powerful politicians. Again, I am certain India is blessed with many honest leaders and this must be a caricature of the reality of Indian democracy, but it does bring out the fact of criminals' presence in Indian politics. According to political science Professor Pradeep Chibber of UC Berkeley, as many as 30% of India's legislators have criminal records. However, the good professor contends that democracy is a messy process that must be allowed to work its bugs out. It should not be interrupted or abandoned because the alternatives are far worse. India has a functioning democracy with an independent judiciary and other institutions that are respected."
The key questions are: Is Indian democracy overrated? Has this democracy served its people well? It is well known that India continues to be the home of the largest number of poor people in the world. It has the highest population of malnourished children. Its farmers are committing suicides at an alarming rate. It has the dubious distinction of being the murder capital of the world, with the largest number of homicides in the world recorded last year.
In a recent interview of Ted Koppel by Charlie Rose regarding Koppel's latest China documentary, Koppel asked rhetorically what rights are more important than the right not to be hungry, the right to be literate, the right to basic clothes and shelter and the right to make a living. He argued that the Chinese government has been largely successful in providing these basic rights to the Chinese people. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in India where there is still widespread hunger, poverty and illiteracy, particularly in rural India where the vast majority of Indians live.
Recent foreign visitors to Pakistan, which has at best been a pseudo-democracy during the last several years, find that the average Pakistani enjoys a higher standard of living than his or her Indian counterpart.
Democracy is not Nirvana. It is not going to efficiently fix a lot of the basic issues of food, clothing, shelter and literacy that the less developed nations have to deal with it on a daily basis. The best thing that can be said in defense of Indian democracy is that the alternative forms of government would likely be worse for India.
Inside ATP: Who Reads Pakistaniat.com
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12 comments:
I absolutely agree with you. Indian democracy is highly overrated. And the Indian Government has to thank its media, for projecting such a positive image of the country. Which brings us to our media and the self proclaimed experts who host various shows on various channels. The problem now is the media, whose anchors, have done absolutely nothing in life except crib and bitch about this country. They have not managed to pick anything positive in this land of ours which includes, not only the fertile plains of Punjab, the coal reserves, the fact that we are one of the top milk producing countries in the world, we produce the worlds best fruits, the fact that we assemble almost 200,000 vehicles, the fact that we are modernizing cities like Islamabad and Karachi, the fact that our banking sector is one of the most sophisticated, the fact that we have the fastest growing telecom sector in the world. They need to project housing projects like that of Bahria town, they need to project the network of Sattar Edhi, they need to project the fact that in the myraid of problems, there are instituitions like LUMS and IBA and NUST. It is so sad to see these anchors bitch and crib and the only thing they are interested in is overthrowing the government. This is only agenda they have.
As an Indian, I would definitely like the Chinese speed of development but definitely not their system. Indians value their freedom and if hypothetically a chinese model is thrust on India, there will be a thousand balkanised countries out of it.The upstream percolation of people's sentiments especially tribals without votebank power and education, is really slow but not stagnant. The Indian system accurately represent the nature of the chaotic people that we are.Right not to be hungry is sort of rhetorical statement. How could u answer something like that. A good system can only offer meritocracy.i.e. equal opportunity to succeed and fertile conditions in way of education, empowerment and infrastructure. In democracy terms, I think we are definitely better democracy than US and almost as good a democracy as Israel.It would be great if we can emulate UK.I think current UK model is the best way forward for India except its plural-mono culturalism.
comment on asim ali,
If u want a PR type media, you can go for Saudi's media which tells only lies and propaganda for tightening the grip of Saud family and its religious thugs. Pakistan surprising has a strong civil society which stood the test of times. Its Human Rights organization are courageous ones too. As I said, it basically comes down to nature of the people, dictatorship is not workable in Pak, at the same time, there is no patience among its people to let the slow process of democracy.I think its in a catch 22 situation.
From my own experience with people of South Asian origin, I find that Indians are generally more nationalistic and probably more patriotic than Pakistanis. Indians generally do not criticize their own country, particularly in the company of foreigners. While there are exceptions, Pakistanis are usually lot more self-critical i public. In the US, I have seen recently in the rallies and protest marches against Musharraf and in support of Pakistani lawyers movement where people have said some very embarrassing things about Pakistan. Recent statements by AQ Khan are also case in point. Pakistanis often wash their dirty linen in public.
The high level politicians in India have generally been competent and very honest. People such as Nehru, Shastri, Indira, Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh have all served their country well in an honest manner. There are issues at the cabinet level and lower as well as in the permit raj run by the bureaucracy. The Indian military has also stayed clear of engaging in politics.
Another thing I have noted is that there is more accountability for politicians in India, as borne out by the number of criminal convictions and jailing of a number of politicians including MPs. In Pakistan, politicians such as Zardari and others either don't get caught or get pardons based on deals brokered by friends and foreigners. These are some of the issues that encourage corruption and bad behavior by politicians in Pakistan and feed Pakistani people's lack of trust in democratic process that helps the corrupt win elections based on their feudal wealth and power or connections or lineage.
The Congress party government has won the vote of confidence amidst continuing and serious allegations of vote buying. "Shame. PM wins, Parliament plumbs new depths," said the Hindustan Times newspaper headline. "Whatever be the veracity of the accusations made by three BJP MPs (alleged that they were offered bribes) what is needed if the nation even hopes to come to terms with this body blow of India's parliamentary democracy is an inquiry into the allegation."
"Democracy is what we make of it and it seems very clear that at some basic level, we have made a hash of it." said the Hindustan Times.
According to BBC, the Times Of India said that the 19-vote victory came "after the managers of the Manmohan Singh government had outmaneuvered and outgunned the opposition in what has been one of the murkiest contests in parliamentary history - a contest in which charges of bribery and misuse of CBI [the federal detective agency] drowned all other substantive issues on debate".
While the voting is now done and the nuke deal will proceed, I think there will be tremendous pressure to have a thorough investigation into how it was accomplished. In democracy, the process is even more important than the results. I also think that Indian democracy will not only survive, but emerge stronger from it, just like it did after Indira's emergency.
I came across both your blogs and it was interesting to read the contents. I am associated with the Indian Capital Markets and your blogs certainly add another perspective to how we see the sub-continent.
As an Indian it was natural that my attention was drawn to this blog.
A lot of what you mention is true as also what fellow blogger Asim Ali has to say.
The Indian media, both print and TV, are so single mindedly focussed on the negative and seamy side. Somebody without acquaintance of ground realities would easily believe the worst.
Millions of success stories that have contributed to inherent strengths never get noticed leave alone communicated.
We are our worst critics and it appears that this malaise affects brethren across our western borders too.
I am new to bloging and in my first blog (2 months back)mentioned
"This is that ancient land which claims to have the answers to the deepest riddles that have foxed mankind eons on end and yet it struggles to find answers to various issues that seem to keep it chained to the dark ages.
India has been an unending mystery where the ancient co-exists with the modern, where a fledgling democracy wages a valiant battle with feudalistic mores, where modern values attempt to heal deep societal divisions."
Reading your blogs and comments makes me ponder on whether the same holds true for Pakistan too.
We need courage to recognise the ills plaguing our society, confidence that they can be overcome and patience to see this transformation through.
I am confident about our future and feel fortunate that I have a chance to make a difference where it matters.
Marvin,
While I agree with your sentiments, I think critical and independent media are part of the democratic tradition. Indians have had much more extensive experience of it than Pakistanis. But I think the legacy media with its diversity and the recent addition of blogosphere creates opportunities for those who seek the truth and can sort out facts from fiction. It requires a reasonably smart electorate which South Asia is moving toward, even though it's a messy and slow process. I am optimistic.
In a recent op ed piece in the Guardian newspaper, author Pankaj Sharma argues:
"Apparently, no inconvenient truths are allowed to mar what Foreign Affairs, the foreign policy journal of America's elite, has declared a "roaring capitalist success story". Add Bollywood's singing and dancing stars, beauty queens and Booker prize-winning writers to the Tatas, the Mittals and the IT tycoons, and the picture of Indian confidence, vigour and felicity is complete.
The passive consumer of this image, already puzzled by recurring reports of explosions in Indian cities, may be startled to learn from the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC) in Washington that the death toll from terrorist attacks in India between January 2004 and March 2007 was 3,674, second only to that in Iraq. (In the same period, 1,000 died as a result of such attacks in Pakistan, the "most dangerous place on earth" according to the Economist, Newsweek and other vendors of geopolitical insight.)
To put it in plain language - which the NCTC is unlikely to use - India is host to some of the fiercest conflicts in the world. Since 1989 more than 80,000 have died in insurgencies in Kashmir and the northeastern states."
I don't think anybody in the world can rate a Democracy...It's just a system of electing a Government for the people,of the people and by the people.Indian Democracy is extremely efficient in the way elections are handled and transition of government takes place.The Election Commission of India does a wonderful and effecient job.The voting process and the vote counting is in fact more advanced than that in the United States as we use EVMs.India,beyond doubt is the world's largest democracy.China will become the largest democracy when ever they adopt this system because their electorate will be bigger than ours.
If you are talking about the performance of our various governments,they are a mixed bag both at the Centre and the States.Some states have rates of growth that even beat China,the fastest growing country in the world but at the same time this development has not been uniform across the states and the country.So you have a fast developing state like Maharashtra having to grapple with farmer suicides in Vidarbha.
India is not perfect,never was..never will be.We are striving to give a better life to all our people.Inshallah,we will succeed one day.We want to have a strong and prosperous South Asia.A region that is on par with the rest of the world and not a laggard as it is today.
Look at South East Asia and they have done very well.Look at West Asia and their economies are booming too.
BBC News on Hindu extremists targeting Christian orphans in Orissa today:
Police in the Indian state of Orissa say suspected Hindu extremists have set fire to an orphanage run by Christian missionaries, burning a woman to death.
The mob reportedly ordered people out of building before setting it alight.
But the woman - a cook at the orphanage - was thrown into the burning building when she tried to stop them from attacking the children.
Local Hindus went on the rampage after the killing on Saturday of one of their leaders.
His supporters suspect Christians were responsible, but the police believe he was killed by Maoist rebels.
The religious leader, Swami Laxamanananda Saraswati, was at the centre of controversy late last year.
Hindus accused Christians of attacking him and police were called in to restore order in the ensuing violence.
Hindu extremists have targeted Christians in Orissa before. Nine years ago an Australian missionary and his two sons were burnt alive by a mob that set their car on fire.
Democracy will not necessary bring prosperity, and contrary to the misconception, democracy does not equal freedom. This is true both in India and in the Western World.
Democracy simply means that the government is controlled by individuals elected by public. If the public is knowledgable about the issues, and there is a high level of public participation, democracy can work very well.
However if the public is uneducated or just indifferent, democracy will yield corruption and poor governance.
I am surprised that Mr haq just goes on and on in his anti india tirade and some indians are actually agreeing with him !
We are ok as we are and dont aspire for chinese growth rates. And we definitely dont need advise from pakistanis, so pls mind your own business !!
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