Date: 5/26/2006
Lootocracy And Goondocracy Of Vajpayee and Manmohan ////////////// Arundhati Roy is perfectly right in observing that India is not a democracy. It is lootocracy cum goondocracy considering. //////////////// When elections are announced voter list are not updated is a standard routine. This announcement of the Election Commission is just a constitutional formality. The only political activity that people get to know from newspapers and rumors is big political parties are negotiating alliances with smaller parties who are generally political opponents in yet to be dissolved state assemblies or Parliament at the center. //////////// Another visible sign of political activity is at the party head (Corporate) offices. Politicians big and small get their CV printed and submit the application with nominal application fee by check but millions in gunny bags to get the party ticket from any constituency where they may not have lived for a single day. ///////////////// Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from Punjab or Delhi, asked some of his aids to take house on rent in Assam state and got his name in the local voters list, a special privilege denied to all other eligible voters. ///////////// Nominations begin just 30 days from the scheduled elections. Baring some election officers and some political parties no one even knows the people who are filing the nomination. This is followed by short 3 days period that allows for withdrawal of nominations. //////////////// This is a very unique feature in India. Political parties usually allow more than one member to file nomination for each seat for in the event of rejection of one candidate other will become party’s choice. ///////////////// This is also an opportunity for small timers to make quick money. They are paid some reasonable sum of money to withdraw in favor of a senior politician. ///////////////// Long list is announced by EC just 21 days from scheduled polling day. While 90% candidates themselves have dubious or criminal record but all hire local and outside goonda elements to launch political campaign.//////////////////////// Political campaign itself is largely centered around party leaders who are either school dropouts or have piled up collection of poetry which no one is willing to read or liked and have not worked in any public office or industry to understand the functioning of economy. So the campaign centers on false promises like free electricity, free water, jobs, bank loans to poor and promises to do every thing poor and majority want. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Poor belonging to scheduled caste and tribe are promised government jobs even if they are not or merit besides loans and are made to believe they will become equal to rich and resourceful like upper caste overnight, their millennium dream. ///////////////////// Voters get a glimpse of the candidate from a distance of say 100 meters where big leaders of party introduces him as party’s preferred choice. Candidates usually touch the feet of seniors or even junior leaders and seek their blessings. /////////////// Simultaneously political parties hire all criminals and threaten weaker classes and scare them from voting. /////////////// Only 50% of electorate including 20% aliens caste their vote. The winning candidates get generally 15% of voters in the list. //////////////// When the result is announced, people get to know that winner is a criminal or murderer or rapist or smuggler or liquor contractor – having dubious history. ////////////////// Obviously objective of assembly of such elected people of dubious track records is not to implement the promises made to the people. ////////////// They sell billions of dollars worth of public land to private companies almost free of cost. Instead of electricity and water, huge dams, huge roads and such waste full projects are undertaken with public money where either they get huge commissions by inflating costs or their kin are contractors or shareholders. /////////////// Poor people are disposed of their properties without or inadequate compensation. The people are expected to go to private hospitals, send their children to private school, travel in private transport even trucks and tempos, get electricity and water from private companies and loans from moneylenders which all are businesses owned or operated by the candidates people elect. /////////////// But there is shortage of bank funding for all crook businesses like Reliance. Its AmbaniDesh project is 10 times costlier than all the loans and advances given to all farmers in India. ////////////////////// Water Supply, Sewage and Roads for poor are nonexistent. Seeds, pesticides and fertilizers for farmers are spurious, who toil all year for poor harvest. /////////////////////// Amir Khan spoke for poor, his films certified by government of India are banned and he can’t safely travel in a most prosperous state. But obviously top goondas and criminals in politics get 24 hours special protection by police. People who had promised secure life to poor get Black Cat protection whereas poor get raped and looted everyday and invariable the rapist and looters are either the candidates people elected or their kin and supporters. ///////////// Poor are promised justice but complainants often get raped and charged as criminals in police stations and shot dead in fake encounters. Our courts convict less than 5% of heinous crimes. Big criminals like Ambanis are not even charged by the government agencies or let off with nominal fine. /////////////// Farmers are not allowed to sell their produce directly to consumers, commission agent buy food at a rate one fifth to a tenth of retail price. ////////////// The candidates people elect also specialize in engineering riots on religion, caste and regional basis. Instead of uniting they divide people. ///////////////// Ours is a Lootocracy and Goodocracy. ////////////////////// Ravinder Singh Corruptionfree04@yahoo.com , povertyfree77@yahoo.com ////////////////// XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=68135 ////////////////// India not democratic: Arundhati Roy //////////// LALIT K. JHA//////////////////////// NEW YORK, MAY 22 In an explosive expression of her views, celebrated Indian writer Arundhati Roy told an audience here that ‘‘India is not a democratic country’’. ‘‘The biggest PR myth of all times is that India is a democracy. In reality, it is not,’’ Roy, the author of The God of Small Things told the 1,000-strong audience at a book reading function she attended along with Eduardo Galeano, one of Latin America’s most distinguished writers. //////////////////// With her aggressive speech, Roy, the 1997 Booker winner, dominated the event with Galeano playing second fiddle. She surprised the jampacked Town Hall as she stopped reading The God of Small Things midway and said she wanted to speak on an issue, which had been bothering her for quite some time. ////////////// She said she was confused, as India was passing through a terrible time. ////////////// Amidst frequent clapping, she blasted the Indian government and the Bush administration. She did not spare even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. ‘‘There is no real democracy in India. Several states in India are on the verge of civil war,’’ she said. ///////////// Challenging the much-acclaimed views of columnist Thomson Friedman praising India, a democracy of a billion population, for conducting peaceful elections year after year, she said, ‘‘He probably needs a new tour of India... Does Thomas know that in Kashmir Valley alone, some 80,000 people have been killed? In Iraq, there are 1,50,000 military personnel, whereas in Kashmir Valley there are some 7,00,000.’’ ////////////////// Referring to the visit of President George Bush to New Delhi in March, she said, without elaborating: ‘‘Bush visit was the most humiliating experience of my life.’’ As the venue for Bush’s address changed from Parliament to Vigyan Bhawan to Metro Park, he finally ended up addressing India from a Zoo. ‘‘I am not joking. This is reality and the giraffes were disappointed,’’ she said amidst laughter from the audience. ///////////////// She did not agree with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s views in his lecture at the Oxford University praising Britain for all the good things that India has, like its democracy, judiciary and bureaucracy. India, she said, was a free market meant to steal from the poor and subsidise the rich. ////////////////// Later, during her dialogue with Galeano, she urged the Americans to oppose the occupation of Iraq by the US and allied forces. She said Iraq and Afghanistan were not the only nations occupied by the US. The others were controlled by checks and public diplomacy, she said. The audience gave her a standing ovation. /////////////// 000000000
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