# Corrupt Democracy In India



## Vikram singh (Aug 9, 2009)

*For decades, American leaders and opinion makers have chosen to ignore the dark  side of democratic India. Now new reports documenting the pervasive abuses  committed by the Indian police are providing firsthand evidence not only of  warrant less arrests, illegal detentions, torture and the deaths of thousands of  citizens but also the complicity of parties and political leaders, who have  turned police and paramilitary forces in a number of states into bodyguard  agencies and private armies.*

*By Barbara  Crossette*
*August 7, 2009*

Sexual abuse in police stations. Crimes "solved" by countless extrajudicial  killings. Life-threatening prison conditions. Widespread torture. Thousands of  unpunished murders in politically inspired pogroms. Sixty million children in  forced labor. 

For decades, American leaders and opinion makers have chosen to ignore the dark  side of democratic India. Now new reports documenting the pervasive abuses  committed by the Indian police are providing firsthand evidence not only of  warrantless arrests, illegal detentions, torture and the deaths of thousands of  citizens but also the complicity of parties and political leaders who have  turned police and paramilitary forces in a number of states into bodyguard  agencies and private armies.   The title of the latest report from Human  Rights Watch, _Broken  System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police_, leaves no  doubt about its conclusions. But Human Rights Watch, which has been the most  diligent of American organizations in monitoring and reporting on India in  recent decades, is not alone. Another report, on the state of police reform in  India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, is soon to be published by the Commonwealth Human  Rights Initiative, based in New Delhi. A former Indian police official who  has seen it says it will make many of the same observations. 
 The United States State Department has also been cataloging Indian rights  abuses. Its latest survey of India, a chapter in the annual _Country  Reports on Human Rights Practices_, released on February 25, 2009,  summarized pages of evidence this way:*Major problems included extrajudicial killings of persons in  custody, disappearances, and torture and rape by police and other security  forces. Investigations into individual abuses and legal punishment for  perpetrators occurred, but for the majority of abuses, the lack of  accountability created an atmosphere of impunity. Poor prison conditions and  lengthy detentions during both pretrial and trial proceedings remained  significant problems. Officials used special antiterrorism legislation to  justify the excessive use of force. Corruption existed at all levels of  government and police.... Increasing attacks against religious minorities and  the promulgation of antireligious conversion laws were concerns. Violence  associated with caste-based discrimination occurred. Domestic violence, child  marriage, dowry-related deaths, honor crimes, female infanticide and feticide  remain serious problems. Trafficking in persons and exploitation of indentured,  bonded and child labor were continuing problems. *​*The killing of Sikhs, a largely prosperous religious minority in India, has  been exhaustively documented by Ensaaf  (Justice), a US-based shoestring human rights group founded by Americans of  Indian descent. Its findings have not been significantly challenged by leading  judges and government investigators in India, who are nonetheless powerless to  force an end to extralegal behavior. *

About as many innocent Sikhs were murdered  in the week following the assassination  of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by Sikh bodyguards in 1984 as all the  Chileans who were killed or disappeared in seventeen years of Augusto Pinochet's  regime. The Sikh killings, and illegal cremations of bodies, without  documentation or notification to families, continued into the 1990s. 

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative operates on the principle that  "democratic nations need democratic policing." Ironically, the Congress Party,  dominant for most of India's sixty-two years of independence and recently  re-elected to power at the head of a coalition, would have the political clout  necessary to see that multiple commissions and court rulings on police abuses  were enforced. It has not done this; nor has the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party,  whose chief minister in Gujarat state  has been widely reported to have been behind the massacre of up to 2,000 Muslims in  2002. 

The Indian media have often been the most effective virtual enforcers of  prescribed conduct, reporting ceaselessly on the kind of dubious police actions  and too-quick findings of guilt that have created wide questioning and disbelief  in many official investigations among the public. 

"While India rightly touts itself as an emerging economic powerhouse that is  also the world's largest democracy, its police forces--the most visible arm of  the Indian state--are widely regarded within India as lawless, abusive and  ineffective," Human Rights Watch concludes. 

Human Rights Watch has studied in depth the weaknesses in police departments,  especially in rural areas, where underpaid, overworked constables are kept on  24/7 call and often expected to do VIP escort duty as well as their regular  jobs. Police stations are often without phones, electricity or vehicles. In a  barracks in the holy city of Varanasi, four policemen had to share one bed, and  there was no extra living space. It is a recipe for brutality and corruption,  with lowly constables who have no chance of advancement taking out their  frustration and lack of human rights training on people even lower in society  than they, the ethnic and religious minorities and Dalits, or  "untouchables." 

Middle-class Indians, and certainly the rich, inoculate themselves against  the pervasive disease of impunity by paying bribes to the police, as well as to  other public service agencies. Perhaps that is why, despite the hard work of  many Indian nongovernmental organizations, a truly national movement against  both police brutality and police deprivation never seems to get traction. In the  US, a strong Indian lobby made up of professionals and business people--working  with profit-hungry American corporations--plays down or rejects reports of  endemic abuses. Indian political leaders escape censure by their American  counterparts with the excuse that Indian democracy is self-correcting. 

When American reporters comb the annual State Department human rights  reports, they are looking for the usual suspects: China, Cuba, Burma, Pakistan  and lately Sri  Lanka, which has lost its UN Human Rights Council seat under a barrage of  criticism from human rights campaigners. A closer reading of the chapter on  India, with its almost 1.2 billion people, soon to be the world's most populous  nation, might be in order.


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## kapii (Aug 10, 2009)

usual **** tirade against India.  The rhetoric is against one particular community (Hindus), but the author does not say that word.  If that is not true, then I guess you forgot about sikh terrorism in punjab , where around 5000 hindus were killed by terrorists.  Thousands migrated from Punjab after and before 1984.  Tonnes of bomb blasts carried out recently by members of one community (muslims).  Ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus and etc etc etc..

I call it hypocrisy   .....  

and as far as world community goes, at least In USA, most of the people have a very highly favourable view of India and about Indian people.  and if you wanna change it, then just tell them the whole story but not parts of it .


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## spnadmin (Aug 10, 2009)

Kapi ji

How thoroughly and how thoughtfully have your read the article by Barbara Crossette? The good, the bad and the ugly have all been presented in this review. It is not a one-sided attack. 

You have now attacked the veracity of not one but 2 well researched studies of social justice and problems in India. But you have not backed anything up with facts and reasons of your own. So do you not think that you have an obligation to this forum and to Hindus to provide some reasons for your statements, rather than making blatant charges of prejudice against Hindus? 

I will repeat parts of this statement in the other thread. Please do not continue with your hostility.


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## harbansj24 (Aug 10, 2009)

But where is the attack on Hindus in this article?

In fact the article lauds the role of Media and the NGOs which are largely made up of Hindus of doing  all that is possible to try and contain the Human Rights violations against all sections  which includes Hindus. The article is critical about the system of governance.

I live in India and I can say that a large silent majority of Hindus are eminently decent people. The proof is that they resoundingly booted out BJP with a covert and overt communal agenda in the recent elections. The result was not only in the number of sears but also in % of vote cast.

Fringe elements are always there in all communities. So Kapi ji, I can say with confidence the Sikh Community has absolutely no problems in peaceful co existence with Hindus and even in making contributions to their prosperity and well being and I am sure our Hindu brothers also have the same reciprocal feelings.

So unless you have any other agenda just banish the thought.

You are welcome to make contributions to the spiritual discussions which this forum is better known for.


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## kapii (Aug 10, 2009)

Narayanjot Kaur : do you need proofs for "massacre of hindus in punjab by sikh terrorists??

or proof for "cleansing of kashmir hindus"?? if you do, then i can not help it 


harbansj24:: that is why i said that the attack was subtle without referencing the name of the religion.  But it did not say the whole story.  only one side was presented.

and as far as, the elections are concerned, BJP got routed: nice.  But what about Akalis in punjab???? are they different from them??


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## kapii (Aug 10, 2009)

Narayanjot Kaur:: In this article, plz guide me where is the reference of Kashmiri hindus???..now where

pUNJABI hindus:: nowhere??? recent terrorists attacks by muslims???: nowhere

then how it is not one-sided??


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## Admin (Aug 10, 2009)

kapii ji, who is stopping you from telling the other part of the story...? :welcome:

i dont know from where you are coming from or which forums you are refering to but your glasses are certainly tainted.  The only person, who seems biased or one-sided at the moment is You!!


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## spnadmin (Aug 10, 2009)

kapi ji

Here are your statements:

Narayanjot Kaur:: In this article, plz guide me where is the reference of Kashmiri hindus???..now where

pUNJABI hindus:: nowhere??? recent terrorists attacks by muslims???: nowhere

then how it is not one-sided?? 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





​
                           Narayanjot Kaur : do you need proofs for "massacre of hindus in punjab by Sikh terrorists??

or proof for "cleansing of kashmir hindus"?? if you do, then i can not help it 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




  harbansj24:: that is why i said that the attack was subtle without referencing the name of the religion. But it did not say the whole story. only one side was presented. 

Now the grinning smilies tell me that you are having a good time with this and are not as outraged as you pretend to be. If you were really upset you would show me  and :inca: and .

To continue - Your argument actually makes no sense at all now that you have extended it to the cleansing of kashmir hindus. Are we reading the same article? What is the title of the article by Ms. Crossette. She is describing the problem that US officials have facing up to abuses of justice in India. So exactly what is your problem with the article? She listed a number of situations where Sikhs and nonSikhs were treated with injustice in the past decades. She lays the problem at the feet of the Congress Party, police forces, prosperous American NRI's, affluent Indians, as well as the tendency for US governments to see half the story. I would call that _multi-sided_ on her part. She did not mention Kashmir -- maybe that situation is so historically and politically complex that it requires an article all by itself. 

I do not retract my diagnosis. You are trolling and are trying to start some kind of flaming situation. ​


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## selvi (Aug 11, 2009)

*Originally http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/hard-talk/26214-corrupt-democracy-in-india.html This article has been merged with the current thread to avoid duplication of material in Post 1 of this thread.  *_

Major problems included extrajudicial killings of persons in custody, disappearances, and torture and rape by police and other security forces. Investigations into individual abuses and legal punishment for perpetrators occurred, but for the majority of abuses, the lack of accountability created an atmosphere of impunity. Poor prison conditions and lengthy detentions during both pretrial and trial proceedings remained significant problems. Officials used special antiterrorism legislation to justify the excessive use of force. Corruption existed at all levels of government and police.... Increasing attacks against religious minorities and the promulgation of antireligious conversion laws were concerns. Violence associated with caste-based discrimination occurred. Domestic violence, child marriage, dowry-related deaths, honor crimes, female infanticide and feticide remain serious problems. Trafficking in persons and exploitation of indentured, bonded and child labor were continuing problems_. 

The killing of Sikhs, a largely prosperous religious minority in India, has been exhaustively documented by Ensaaf (Justice), a US-based shoestring human rights group founded by Americans of Indian descent. Its findings have not been significantly challenged by leading judges and government investigators in India, who are nonetheless powerless to force an end to extralegal behavior. About as many innocent Sikhs were murdered in the week following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by Sikh bodyguards in 1984 as all the Chileans who were killed or disappeared in seventeen years of Augusto Pinochet's regime. The Sikh killings, and illegal cremations of bodies, without documentation or notification to families, continued into the 1990s. 

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative operates on the principle that "democratic nations need democratic policing." Ironically, the Congress Party, dominant for most of India's sixty-two years of independence and recently re-elected to power at the head of a coalition, would have the political clout necessary to see that multiple commissions and court rulings on police abuses were enforced. It has not done this; nor has the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, whose chief minister in Gujarat state has been widely reported to have been behind the massacre of up to 2,000 Muslims in 2002. 

The Indian media have often been the most effective virtual enforcers of prescribed conduct, reporting ceaselessly on the kind of dubious police actions and too-quick findings of guilt that have created wide questioning and disbelief in many official investigations among the public. 

"While India rightly touts itself as an emerging economic powerhouse that is also the world's largest democracy, its police forces--the most visible arm of the Indian state--are widely regarded within India as lawless, abusive and ineffective," Human Rights Watch concludes. 

Human Rights Watch has studied in depth the weaknesses in police departments, especially in rural areas, where underpaid, overworked constables are kept on 24/7 call and often expected to do VIP escort duty as well as their regular jobs. Police stations are often without phones, electricity or vehicles. In a barracks in the holy city of Varanasi, four policemen had to share one bed, and there was no extra living space. It is a recipe for brutality and corruption, with lowly constables who have no chance of advancement taking out their frustration and lack of human rights training on people even lower in society than they, the ethnic and religious minorities and Dalits, or "untouchables." 

Middle-class Indians, and certainly the rich, inoculate themselves against the pervasive disease of impunity by paying bribes to the police, as well as to other public service agencies. Perhaps that is why, despite the hard work of many Indian nongovernmental organizations, a truly national movement against both police brutality and police deprivation never seems to get traction. In the US, a strong Indian lobby made up of professionals and business people--working with profit-hungry American corporations--plays down or rejects reports of endemic abuses. Indian political leaders escape censure by their American counterparts with the excuse that Indian democracy is self-correcting. 

When American reporters comb the annual State Department human rights reports, they are looking for the usual suspects: China, Cuba, Burma, Pakistan and lately Sri Lanka, which has lost its UN Human Rights Council seat under a barrage of criticism from human rights campaigners. A closer reading of the chapter on India, with its almost 1.2 billion people, soon to be the world's most populous nation, might be in order


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