
The Sad State of our Democracy - petrel
http://amreekandesi.com/2012/12/23/what-happened-to-democracy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+amreekandesi+%28amreekandesi.com%29
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Jagat
Background for those who're not aware of what's happening in India:

A week back, a twenty-one year old woman was gang raped by six other men in a
private bus in New Delhi. The rape involved the use of an iron rod, which
totally messed up with her digestive system. Her guy friend, who tried to
protect her, was hit on the head, and both of them were thrown out of the bus
in the middle of the night. Though they're in terrible condition in a hospital
now, they've survived. The perpetrators have been arrested.

This harrowing incident led to nationwide anti-rape protests in India. In
particular, against the evidently rampant men-are-superior and short-clothes-
cause-rape classes of beliefs in India. The government has been totally mum on
the issue and has not issued any concrete steps to prevent such incidents in
the future. Peaceful protests in Delhi were met with merciless beatings and
water cannons and tear gas.

India is indeed in a sad state of gender inequality, lack of freedom of speech
and a never ending vicious cycle of
illiteracy->demagoguery->poverty->corruption

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joeguilmette
I'll be traveling in India from Jan - April with my girlfriend.

With all this news I've been having second thoughts about our safety.

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kmfrk
Sounds like something to reconsider. Sorry about the botched travel plans, but
I'd feel uncomfortable with it, too.

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sliverstorm
If nothing else, there's always the 'ol, "Vote with your wallet", e.g. in this
case visit somewhere more progressive and spend your time/money there.

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kmfrk
Definitely. Make sure it's not
[Egypt]([http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/fundamentalist-
constitution-...](http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/fundamentalist-constitution-
theocracy.html)).

Europe is fine, I guess, but you go there for a different reason than you
would to a place like India. There's probably little quite like it - for
better or worse.

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petrel
The discussion completely hacked by the security and tourist point of view,
though the view of the article was to say about the current condition of
Governance in India. I am also a Indian. Most of the time, when I see any
western tourist, I feel very embarrassed. I always think that why they have
come here, what is special in India, that they come here? This is not the
first time that such incident has occurred. There are many examples that many
international tourists have suffered of the same shameful thing. No one cares,
no one is serious, and the government is still being a long sleeping mode.
This is the result of what happen when most of the officials, who
investigates, the media who cover, the politician who don't know the
seriousness are just trying to have a tv bite and they don't understand
anything beyond vote bank.

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ankit28595
The protesters were trying to enter the Rashtrapati Bhawan, that's when tear
gas and water cannons were used, not just because there were protesting.

Just to be fair.

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rwbt
Not to sound cynical, but this is what happens when the majority of the
electorate votes on the basis of meaningless things like caste, religion and
dynasties.

~~~
sliverstorm
The Ming Dynasty would like to have a few words with you about "meaningless"

