Political Corruption

We all want clean image, honest political leaders who can lead our country but as you know it is very hard because honest and clean peoples do not have the money for campaign and to distribute money to voters. Now a days voters make a team on the basis of their caste, community, religion etc. and put demands in front of candidates. Only those candidates who have the big chunk of money (money which earned through wrong means) with them can fulfill the wishes of these types of voters and later after getting victory these candidates work to get back their money which is paid by all voters(common man) in form of taxes. The money required for campaigning in a lok sabha constituency is minimal one crore although as per election commission norms it is only few lakhs rupees. If a candidate puts one crore rupees in election and also provide his time then after victory he will aim is to recover this one crore rupees plus the cost of time which is invested. Lets take another example when someone have worked for a candidate during his campaign, he is called worker, the worker may be giving his time or his time & money or time, money, contacts etc. After victory of candidate he ask the candidate to give him his part of slice by putting his men on government jobs or giving admission to his known in educational institutes or favour him awarding government tenders/contracts and the leader due to under obligation have to fulfil this thing and also to recover his own invested money. So the big questions is who is behind the corruption in politics.

 

I request all the voters to do voting without any greed and favour. Give your vote to the candidate who is clean and honest. Please don't vote on the basis of caste/religion it will lead to division in society.

 

Democracy Index: India stands 35th out of 167

 This news source is heavily sourced form Wikipedia and Rediff news portal.

India is not a full democracy but a flawed one, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2008 Democracy index. The conclusion is drawn on the basis of the country's performance on 60 indicators which measure electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

The Democracy index ranks India 35th out of 167 countries, among other nations considered 'flawed democracies' including Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil.

Pakistan ranks at 108 out of 167.

The good news is that with an overall score of 7.8 out of 10, India is close to the category of 'full democracy' nations.

India's scores take a beating in the category of political participation and political culture. The index also points out that "unwieldy and sometimes uncooperative coalitions" often hinder economic reforms. Though government functioning scores decently, corruption and lack of government accountability drags down the score in this category. Hence, "uncooperative coalitions "dragged India down in this ranking! (That is why I say that bar must be raised for regional parties for a national participation otherwise they will continue to play spoil-sport!)

The Economist has in a study examined the state of democracy in 167 countries and attempted to quantify this with an Economist Intelligence Unit Index of Democracy which focused on five general categories; electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

The countries are categorized into:

1. Full democracies—scores of 8-10.
   
2. Flawed democracies—scores of 6 to 7.9.
   
3. Hybrid regimes—scores of 4 to 5.9.
   
4. Authoritarian regimes—scores below 4.
   

Sweden scored a total of 9.88 on a scale from zero to ten, which was the highest result, while North Korea scored the lowest with 0.86.

According to Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2008:

# 1: Sweden

# 2: Norway

# 3: Iceland

# 4: Netherlands (Holland)

# 10: Australia

# 17: Japan

# 18: USA

# 21: UK

# 108: Pakistan

# 161; Saudi Arabia

# 163: Burma (Myanmar)

Last (# 167): North Korea


Methodology

As described in the report, the democracy index is a kind of weighted average based on the answers of 60 questions, each one with either two or three permitted alternative answers. Most answers are "experts' assessments"; the report does not indicate what kinds of experts, nor their number, nor whether the experts are employees of The Economist or e.g. independent scholars, nor the nationalities of the experts. Some answers are provided by public opinion surveys from the respective countries.

1. "Whether national elections are free and fair";
   
2. "The security of voters";
   
3. "The influence of foreign powers on government";
   
4. "The capability of the civil servants to implement policies".
   

The details of this study can be found in this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index

Unite against Criminal Candidates: Do not Vote for them!

Of course we know (literate as well as illiterate voters) that goons are ruling us. Some of the  political leaders have criminal records (hence we can call them criminals), majority are tainted: tainted by corrupt practices, nepotism, and favoritism and inefficiency. The charges against many of these leaders have not come into light or have not been proven! But the major perception is that the current herd of political leaders- spanning across all political parties - are self-serving.

Thus it is clear that 2 major diseases that afflict our democracy are: Criminalization of politics and lack of accountability.

Thus does this slogan make any sense: Vote and choose a clean leader? This voice has become very prominent particularly in these elections, thanks to the technology (blogs, text messages, social networks, twitter, TV and radio, etc). When all political parties are giving tickets to goons in these upcoming Lok Sabha elections of 2009, who do we choose? The dilemma is understandable.

Let me express what I feel on this issue:

Decriminalization of politics requires policy changes. Elections are a few weeks away, so we can not count on this. Whereas the public, NGOs, eminent social leaders and activists must continue their struggle to press for the electoral reforms on a national basis, for the current Lok Sabha elections, here are my simple formulas:

1. Vote we must. Each vote counts. We get a holiday from the government on this day (hence it makes much more sense to at least perform this holy ritual!). Meanwhile have we secured our papers for the eligibility to cast a vote?

2. Best value of vote: Let us make a pledge: Whatever political party I like, my vote will go to the best candidate among the current contestants. That means, who is least corrupt, who has shown interest in public affairs, who has done the best development work (may not apply on a newcomer), who has ignited least of the caste and religious passions. 
Hence, I will vote not on the basis of caste, creed and religion.

3. Vote for national parties:  Without sounding like contradicting my point # 2, I would urge to vote for a national party. These are Parliamentary elections, not assembly elections. The regional parties by securing tits and bits of LS seats will play the role of middle-men and will 'hang' the nation! They will always look for opportunity to stall the central governments even on regional issues (now think, is that justified?). They will be on big sale during festivals like "No confidence motion). 

4. Vote one and motivate another to vote: Let it be a chain reaction.

 It is generally seen that illiterate voters come out in good numbers and vote en-bloc or en-masse! No grudges! At least they are voting. But educated voters need to come out and vote. 

As I wrote yesterday that in the survey by The Economist , India stands at 35th out of 167 and we are classified as a "Flawed Democracy" and not even a full democracy: thus much needs to be achieved in that direction! Our struggle is long, but first step first: let us focus on these elections: try to choose the best lot!

# Cast your vote: each vote counts!
# Motivate others to vote. Wake them on the voting day!

# Let law-breakers not become law-makers!