Corruption and democracy

I have started wondering about the seemingly intangible link between corruption and democracy in India. Is it intangible after all?

I see political parties shielding persons accused of corruption and coming out in their defense all the while claiming to be champions of the people and democracy. I wonder whether it is now an issue of corrupt persons forming political parties instead of the earlier issue of having corrupt politicians in political parties.

Allowing the corrupt to continue to occupy the seats of power would certainly undermine our democratic institutions and pave way for dictatorships. Perhaps this is the reason why most political parties in India are not able to have genuine democracy within them.

It seems the present Central Government is using all means to prevent the true picture from being revealed to the public and it uses police power, lies and deception to cloud the real issues now agitating the minds of the people.

The current scenario also indicates the disenchantment of the people with political parties with the organizers of all popular protests against corruption trying to distance themselves from political parties. This is a ripe situation for political chaos, anarchy and revolution to occur in any country. With religious fundamentalism just an arm's length away, it would do well for all right thinking individuals to force this government to take concrete steps to combat corruption and to punish the guilty. Else, the vacuum created by a non-performing government is almost always fertile ground for forces of balkanization to thrive on.

United Colours of Terrorism - One Message, Across Borders

I found this intriguing post at http://ibnlive.in.com/conversations/topic/80787-1-3-2.
Posted by sriramvee at 01:17 PM, Dec 18, 2008

Mr.Antulay is one of the very few politicians who have been convicted in India for corruption and was debarred from contesting elections for 7 years and the congress rehabilitated him with an eye on Muslim votes. He was very close to the real estate mafia and was the CM of Maharashtra when Dawood was in Mumbai. Today Russian intelligence says Dawood funded the Mumbai attack - dont we clearly see a connection. One plus one is two afterall. Also this is what gets back to the question of unbridled partiotism of Indian Muslims. If a responsible Muslim leader can speak like this - which is clearly giving ammunition to Pakistan, how does one expect that Muslims are wholeheartedly with us? It is another question that issues surrounding so called Hindu terror has to be investigated, but to say that it is linked to the Mumbai attack is not just preposterous, but clearly shows a design of diverting attention from the current investigation and help Pakistan make more noises against us.

Selective Definitions of War Crimes

"Till the day the lions have their rule, history will only show hunting as a glorious skill and hunters as heroes." - an African Quote.
The BBC had an item on the reaction of its readers on the capture of Karadzic – a Bosnian Serb War Crimes suspect. That piece left me wondering about the status of George Bush the current President of the United States of America and of Tony Blair, the former prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Are they not of the same ilk? If definitions are only what matters, then what is the use of defining human rights? Should not people who bring in untold misery to others on account of their actions be held equally responsible as other criminals for they do what they do with full knowledge of the consequences?
Is it justice when dozens of innocent people are killed in Iraq or Afghanistan by bombs dropped by the military forces of the United States of America and the United Kingdom when they know that it could be a consequence of their act and when they have absolutely no business to be on its territory? Are not George Bush and Tony Blair, as the political heads of these countries, equally responsible as Radovan Karadzic for the acts done under their command? If so, are not the selective definitions to suit political purposes a greater crime against humanity than any other?