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Showing posts from July, 2014

Democracy’s nadir and the demise of Abe’s cherished phrase

From a former chief minister justifying that support in our electoral process has to be purchased to a lawmaker getting away with assaulting policemen, recent incidents in Karnataka hold up a looking glass to what has horribly gone wrong in our democratic setup. Chances are if Indian democracy has not touched nadir it just did a little south of the Vindhyas over the last few weeks. An audio clipping of former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and national president of the Janata Dal (Secular), in conversation with another person did the rounds in the media recently, kicking up a furore. In it, he was heard demanding a hefty sum of Rs40 crore for support to an aspirant to the state Legislative Council. Following a negotiation the sum arrived at was Rs25 crore. Transcripts of the same were published in the dailies. Kumaraswamy, for his part, did not issue a denial and instead offered the excuse that is also an open truth that such transacti