Documenting 21st Century - India and the World

Ruling BJP regime is creating a terror wave among political parties in India. Imprisoning rival politicians, freezing bank accounts of opposition political parties, unleashing tax department & other agencies on opposition political parties.  There's really no doubt that these are not free and fair elections. But activists have pretty narrow view of "free and fairness" of elections. Fact is that India never had free and fair elections in many decades. To understand this, we need to understand what "free and fairness" of elections actually means. For liberal activists, idea of free and fair elections is where political parties and politicians can campaign freely and participate in electoral process without any foul play, obstruction and mischief from ruling govt.  A further addition to free and fair elections can also be said about funding of political parties. All political parties should have balanced funding for their campaigns. But the ruling govt with mon...

This is a tentative Profile of some major political parties in India right now.  BJP - The main Fascist party that's ruling India and a Pathocracy lead by worst sociopathic fanatic elements of Indian politics. It's rise to power started around three decades ago based on religious populism (Hindu Nationalism). Current stronghold of party is in Northern states & so called cow belt states which are the culturally and socioeconomically most backward regions of India. To consolidate power, party also makes alliance with secular, liberal and other traditional reactionary parties of India. The party employs the most notorious terrorist gangs (religious militant organizations) and gangsters for political purposes. The party is also embedded ideologically in Govt institutions including the military, courts, Police etc. Party has long track record of communal religious violence, riots, mass murders, assassinations etc. BJP also has characteristic of plebeian revolution subsidized by...

With India going more and more into dysfunction, paralysis and failure, various opinions have emerged on the current state of India. Some blame India's failure on drifting away from principles of Gandhian/Nehruvian vision. Some blame it on endemic institutional corruption that has slowly hollowed out the country. Others blame it on religious extremism, casteism and nepotism. Before getting into problems in India's political system, i look at conditions that shaped India's political system at its inception. Founding fathers of Independent India - Nehru, Gandhi etc grew up in age of colonialization which significantly shaped their thinking. Gandhi, a disciple of non-violence, believed that dialogue & reason alone are sufficient to solve world problems. With reasoning and rationality, people can be convinced to become harmonious. He envisioned India as rural village society where everyone will live in peace without exploitation of colonial forces and under the protection o...