Thinking of thieving in Bihar? Best forget it...

batistuta

That is what they told the Media, It's a classic example of Indian Police trying to get off the hook, by lying. It's like Indian Politicians (scoundrels in their own right) trying to defend themselves after getting caught on tape accepting a bribe by saying that the tape is fabricated and they were not the ones in the tape.

steven_ber

Absolutely sickening, and sadly a far too common occurrence in 'the other side' of India, and don't think this kind of thing is a Bihar thing, it happens all over India, there is rarely a day goes by that I don't read about a sickening incident happening in India.

I say 'the other side' of India because it seems to me there is the part everyone loves to talk about, the mega-cities, the prosperous areas, the booming economy and so on, and then there's the other side, the less wealthy cities, the rural areas, where they seem stuck in the dark ages in both thoughts and actions.

The 'good' side of India is seeing economic growth and prosperity, the 'other' side is seeing rule by mob, gangsters, corruption and are living without hope or opportunity, sadly neither the good side or the other side are in any way affected by the other.

Very sad, and one of the reasons that many people will always view India as a third world country, no matter what the statistics say, a country should always be judged by how they deal with the more unfortunate individuals (or communities) amongst them.

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Nick-H

This is no laughing matter, but that must be my best typo yet, and what's more,Steven's at it too, now!

Rule by Mod. Yeah, right.... .

I'll edit both those posts

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mridula

I agree Nick, this is no laughing matter and that Steven too is at it!

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capt_mahajan

The link I will give you later here is kind of off topic.

The other side of India is fashionably called the 'Invisible India' these days.
This is what P Sainath has to say about that
Full interview, here: Recommended reading.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/aug/ivw-sainath.htm

(P Sainath is also the author of the excellent book, Everybody loves a good draught )

shashank.aggarwal

Nick I guess now you are the who has moved to the 'dark side'

I never expected you to Fudge data

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shashank.aggarwal

captain the link is not working for me ..

I am not sure why people are still saying that the other side is not being discussed..

I feel that it is very much in fashion these days, and people make sure that they mentioned the 'Invisible India' just to show how intellectually Enlightened and concerned they are...

This independence day, there were special issues of various magazines, newspapers etc, and I don't remember reading even a single article that didn't mentioned the other side...

Do you remember any thread on IM in recent times, which has tried to highlight the growth story and has not been bogged down by cynicism ?

capt_mahajan

Funny. Works for me.

Anyway, if you go to http://www.indiatogether.org/
and on the right vertical panel "interview with P Sainath", a little below his photo.

PS the Invisible India becomes sporadically fashionable. It did, recently, because of some State Elections, and the Prime Minister making some comments to industry about CEO salaries.

shashank.aggarwal

Its working in IE,

however in firefox I am diverted to http://denied.com/ with a message :

"This Domain is For Sale If interested, please contact domains ayat gunn.com"

ananda2193

There's a "Globe Trekker" episode on India where their in a market I think in Goa and it shows people beating some young man for stealing some food. Cowboy justice I guess. To shame him in front of everyone could have a positive impact. But they surely went overboard and insane with this story.

steven_ber

Great quote Capt.

shashank, I don't know how to take your comments, they are precisely the kind of points I would put forward to show that 'Invisible India' will only ever be discussed in magazine articles by the chattering classes, and only when it's fashionable to do so.

If you were being humorous, I like your kind of humour, very British.

It reminds me of the chattering classes in the UK, for a long time I was involved in trying to promote better relations between different communities in certain inner city areas of East London, the government decided to promote one such area with special offers (tax breaks etc) to encourage locals to set up their own businesses, soon after, the chattering classes moved in to take advantage of the special deals available, on the whole, they never employed locals, they opened businesses that were not aimed at the locals, and more or less pushed the locals out of the immediate area, then they would sit around in coffee shops reading articles about the inner city problems and discussing the problems between themselves, sadly they never felt it necessary to interact with the locals.

But back to India...

The day 10 million 'better off' Indians march on parliament to express their disgust at the Khairlanji murders, the lack of reporting of the murders and the disgust at the police who covered up for the murderers, that will be the day we can say that the 'other side' is being discussed.

ranjan154

Check out this news
http://www.angvani.com/index.php?opt...d=70&Itemid=27

Reaction one day later..

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shashank.aggarwal

Well unfortunately I am being frustrated by all these things..

People simply fail to understand that, bringing the topic of other India, every time prosperity is discussed is breeding This India VS other India attitude..

Cynicism is good, but to a certain extent, people are forgetting that growth and boom we are talking about is hardly 5 years old and is still in very early stages. Its still needs a lot of pat on backs and encouragement to classify as real something..

This independence day PM promised a package of Rs 25,000 crore for agriculture sector in India...I am not aware how significant that figure is in that context, however the vibe the media gave was that it was a huge figure...

If we simply stop looking at positives and start to discuss the negatives at every given opportunity then I am sure we are going back to the times where we came from...when socialism was thought to be the mantra for development and the end result was dark ages for 4 decades...

Nick-H

The India that I see every day is chasing itself into a black hole that bears much resemblance to a sewage pit.

Beautiful tree-lined roads are being torn up to make room for flyovers that may or may not ever be started, let alone finished.

Development on Chennai's IT Highway is leaving residents flooded with sewage whilst lacking drinking water. Nobody in the city has power for 24 hours, seven days a week, unless they happen to live nextdoor to a powerful politician.

Our waterways stink. Local lakes are used as garbage dumps.

Pats on the back and encouragement?

No... well-aimed kicks in the backside would be more appropriate.

shashank.aggarwal

So what exactly should be done..close all the businesses that require the Chennai IT highway, close all the industrial units..

Or you think that the electric problem, sewage problem, drinking water problem are 5 years old since the GDP started to grow in real terms...and that is the reason we should not talk about new growth as it has ruined the lives of millions like you and me and hundreds of millions poorer than us...

I agree that these problems do exist however I find it very irritating when someone shouts from the rooftop at every given chance..

You are imagining a perfect world, which I am afraid never existed and will never be...