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The corruption that is endemic in India that Dr Alf writes about could not flourish without officials, ministers and probably top policemen either being asleep on the job or looking carefully the other way. Show trials of miscreants would just produce some small fish, whilst the real villains walked away scot-free.
Turkeys do not vote for Christmas, so expecting reform from those in charge in that very unequal country is asking too much. Reform can only come when you have different people in charge, and not from the same swamp out of which the present incumbents crawled.
Effectively, you need an Indian equivalent of Lee Quan Yew, someone who is patriotic and willing to root out corruption and malfeasance and willing to take on the Indian version of organised crime, just as Lee Quan Yew did with the Triads and criminal gangs in his native Singapore. This does not mean” Dixon of Dock Green” style policing but something a lot more effective.
The Hindu caste system holds the country back by exaggerating already great inequalities and reinforcing those which already exist. This needs to be challenged by an Indian Government with “cojones”and the sort of” get it done” attitude that the Chinese have. Whether Modi is capable of effecting such change is to me questionable, and until someone capable of rising to the challenge is found, things will not improve very fast.
Longer term, their education system needs to be remodeled along the lines of say South Korea’s and during that long school-day children can have their attitudes reshaped, so that they respect each other and understand what their patriotic duty is rather than accepting corruption, delay and malfeasance as the norm.
John Gelmini
Dr Alf's Blog 