Comments on: The only good woman is a dead one.

By: MoorNam

MoorNam — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 22:15:53 +0000

rl writes: >>Democracy in India and other countries in south asia is a joke.

Indian democracy works. I agree about other countries in South Asia - except SL.

M. Nam

By: MoorNam

MoorNam — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 22:14:45 +0000

rl writes: >>Democracy in India and other countries in south asia is a joke.

Indian democracy works. I agree about other countries in South Asia - except SL.

M. Nam

By: dhaavak

dhaavak — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 20:54:42 +0000

Democracy in India and other countries in south asia is a joke... benevolent dictators

etc. troll alert.

By: Kush Tandon

Kush Tandon — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 20:35:55 +0000

"The illiterate and poor don't care and vote along the caste lines or on some short term things like saris"

Is that so? How come Indira Gandhi was voted out of power, then Janata Party voted out of power, and many years later BJP.

In all cases, the poor (economically disadvantaged) were the swing voters. India and South Africa have higher voter turnout than US of A.

Anywhere, democracy is not perfect, yet the best the system.

By: Umair Muhajir

Umair Muhajir — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 20:22:23 +0000

I find it curious that those typically in favor of a benevolent dictatorship “for the sake of the poor” are not from the masses sought to be protected. To put it another way, it is precisely the poor who feel themselves empowered by democracy to a certain extent that they would rather not do without it– those in economically privileged positions are (at least in India) far more likely to espouse such views.

Anyway, who is to decide whether a dictatorship is benevolent or not; if you decide later on that it isn’t, how is one to get rid of it? Taking China’s example, even if Deng is accepted as a benevolent dictator, it’s not like there was any recourse when the not-so-benevolent dictatorship implemented the Cultural revolution…

By: Vidster

Vidster — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:33:31 +0000

the chinese example perhaps is not the best one for india to emulate, given the growing "inequality of opportunity" and the disparity in economic freedom in that country.

By: rl

rl — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:04:50 +0000

Democracy in India and other countries in south asia is a joke. The illiterate and poor don’t care and vote along the caste lines or on some short term things like saris. No wonder crooks like laloo prasad yadav have a field day. (for those fans of laloo, he says things like flooding is good because people can catch fish and bihar don’t need roads and highways because people there don’t have cars). My chinese friends cite the pathetic state of india as a reason for not going prematurely democratic. The Chinese clearly understand that economic freedom should come first since freedom from poverty is the most important freedom. We should follow the chinese example and have a benevolent dictatorship like the brilliant Deng of China.

By: Umair Muhajir

Umair Muhajir — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:36:44 +0000

Actually, there IS hope for Bihar. Or more accurately, the Bihar of today offers more potential for optimism than the Bihar of 1951…that’s the modest claim I am making, that we miss the point if we dismiss measures simply based on what has happened in the most recent election (by that yardstick, one might have concluded democracy in the USA was a failure just from the famed “dead men voting” elections in Chicago and other cities)…

By: SloganMurugan

SloganMurugan — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:33:11 +0000

So Umair, there’s hope for Bihar

By: Umair Muhajir

Umair Muhajir — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:28:10 +0000

Women candidates being wives and daughters of local bigwigs: that’s how it always begins, but over time the “logic” of measures such as thes ebegins to assert itself. In the early Indian elections, there were widespread reports of peasants voting the way former and current landlords told them to; nowadays one still hears such reports, but to a much reduced extent (reflected in the splintering or weakening of “broad based”/”national” parties in favor of smaller grouoings more targeted to particular constituencies)…