<story><title>Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record</title><url>http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21716019-penchant-criminality-electoral-asset-india-worlds-biggest</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aisofteng</author><text>&amp;gt;People who dare to oppose these powerful people discover the true meaning of hell. It&amp;#x27;s true practically everywhere in the world including the US.&lt;p&gt;It can be true in the US, but it definitely is not the norm. This statement rings false. For all the problems the US has, yes including corruption in some places, it is almost entirely unique in its freedom of speech and its allowance for  political opposition without fear of retribution as a modus operandi.</text></item><item><author>anondon</author><text>The videos you linked were so hard to watch.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; India is a land of lawlessness and that&amp;#x27;s a reality.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a little more subtle : well connected people to whatever they want and get away with no consequences. People who dare to oppose these powerful people discover the true meaning of hell. It&amp;#x27;s true practically everywhere in the world including the US.&lt;p&gt;IMO for all the shit that social networks receive (for good reasons), one of the side effects is that it&amp;#x27;s a lot easier to share such gross violations of law an example of which are the above videos. In a way social networks give people power.</text></item><item><author>kumarm</author><text>The Article doesn&amp;#x27;t cover basics of Criminality of Indian Politicians.&lt;p&gt;These are just two example in last week from 1 south Indian state caught on camera (Because Local media would not cover since pretty much media in state supports ruling party):&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=wOueUSVSuYk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=wOueUSVSuYk&lt;/a&gt; [1]&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=3hG2fqW-tcM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=3hG2fqW-tcM&lt;/a&gt; [2]&lt;p&gt;Very rarely criminality of Indian politicians comes out because Media do not want to cover it. These showed up because someone could record. But in both cases, elected representatives and their goons are already out of trouble.&lt;p&gt;India is a land of lawlessness and that&amp;#x27;s a reality.&lt;p&gt;[1]A journalist being beaten by local representatives brother because he wrote on their corruption.&lt;p&gt;[2]Goons of local representative beating a women (1 eyed mind you) because she didn&amp;#x27;t agree for their illegal construction in front of her house.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>doodyhead</author><text>&amp;gt; ...it is almost entirely unique in its freedom of speech and its allowance for political opposition without fear of retribution as a modus operandi.&lt;p&gt;This is a common misconception of Americans and is blatantly untrue. America is absolutely not the only free country in the world and, in some areas, it is less free.&lt;p&gt;Take press freedom, for instance: the US currently ranks 41st:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;rsf.org&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;ranking&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;rsf.org&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;ranking&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are plenty of other fully democratic countries in the world, where freedom of speech is accepted, encouraged, and enshrined in well-respected laws.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record</title><url>http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21716019-penchant-criminality-electoral-asset-india-worlds-biggest</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aisofteng</author><text>&amp;gt;People who dare to oppose these powerful people discover the true meaning of hell. It&amp;#x27;s true practically everywhere in the world including the US.&lt;p&gt;It can be true in the US, but it definitely is not the norm. This statement rings false. For all the problems the US has, yes including corruption in some places, it is almost entirely unique in its freedom of speech and its allowance for  political opposition without fear of retribution as a modus operandi.</text></item><item><author>anondon</author><text>The videos you linked were so hard to watch.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; India is a land of lawlessness and that&amp;#x27;s a reality.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a little more subtle : well connected people to whatever they want and get away with no consequences. People who dare to oppose these powerful people discover the true meaning of hell. It&amp;#x27;s true practically everywhere in the world including the US.&lt;p&gt;IMO for all the shit that social networks receive (for good reasons), one of the side effects is that it&amp;#x27;s a lot easier to share such gross violations of law an example of which are the above videos. In a way social networks give people power.</text></item><item><author>kumarm</author><text>The Article doesn&amp;#x27;t cover basics of Criminality of Indian Politicians.&lt;p&gt;These are just two example in last week from 1 south Indian state caught on camera (Because Local media would not cover since pretty much media in state supports ruling party):&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=wOueUSVSuYk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=wOueUSVSuYk&lt;/a&gt; [1]&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=3hG2fqW-tcM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=3hG2fqW-tcM&lt;/a&gt; [2]&lt;p&gt;Very rarely criminality of Indian politicians comes out because Media do not want to cover it. These showed up because someone could record. But in both cases, elected representatives and their goons are already out of trouble.&lt;p&gt;India is a land of lawlessness and that&amp;#x27;s a reality.&lt;p&gt;[1]A journalist being beaten by local representatives brother because he wrote on their corruption.&lt;p&gt;[2]Goons of local representative beating a women (1 eyed mind you) because she didn&amp;#x27;t agree for their illegal construction in front of her house.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sametmax</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s because in the US, corruption is just legal thanks to lobbying.&lt;p&gt;Plus, you are in a country where you can go to war to satisfy your friends benefit. Lie blatantly about the motives. Spend billions of dollars for it in a country in massive debt. Get caught doing so. Yet ignore international instutiions, go kill thousands of people anyway and get away with it.&lt;p&gt;You are in a country bailing the banks that ruined themself.&lt;p&gt;You are in a country where it&amp;#x27;s legal to snatch somebody without a trial. Where you can get in secret prisons and be tortured. All that justified by events that killed less people than the flu.&lt;p&gt;Where massive surveillance is allowed by politicians for security, yet they ban all attempt of transparency on their own actions.&lt;p&gt;The only difference with India is that they are better at it :&lt;p&gt;- they don&amp;#x27;t make it obvious and chocking enough so that it leads to a strong reaction&lt;p&gt;- they use all the tricks in the book to divert attention&lt;p&gt;But in the end, the US is so corrupted it could be a case study for future historians.&lt;p&gt;France is pretty much the same, mind you. We have just less guns and more smug.</text></comment>