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Comment by nsomaru | Hacker News Reader

Sad, and typical.

I have lived in India for the last 3 years and at first I was angry, then disgusted, but now it's just sadness.

To see a country with so much potential throw themselves into such a quagmire of ridiculousness stirs my soul to mutiny!

There is a culture of corruption, and this article just highlights one of thousands of daily acts of corruption that happen on macro and micro scales.

India needs a cultural revolution, someone to suck the apathy out of the people and make them demand responsibility from their leaders.

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> India needs a cultural revolution, someone to suck the apathy out of the people and make them demand responsibility from their leaders.

The problem is that it's difficult to have a good democracy when you have low levels of human development. When 25% of the population is illiterate, a good number more lack a basic education, and half the children are malnourished, it's very difficult to get your average person on the street to care enough to make the right decision when election time rolls around.

It's like the difference between a group of college students electing their teacher and a kindergarten electing their teacher.

There is something like that underway currently and the guy who was arrested for tweeting was part of it - India Against Corruption(http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/). Like every common Indian, they have my support and money and when time comes I am willing to take it to the streets as well.

The litmus test will be, how much interest it can get from people beyond big cities.

Actually there was a time in the past two years, where a street revolution was inevitable. Especially last year and this year, both during Anna Hazare's fast.

But some how they couldn't hold on and fire died soon. Last year the fever was really high.

A radical change is not gonna happen with any fire or so that you mention. The path to achieve it is what Mr. Kejriwal is doing right now, and the time to get there will be the next decade or so. You think a street revolution is gonna help India right now, or a structured approach with a long-term vision..

When the corrupt politicians take anti-democratic action like this one against the free speech, people en masse should repeat the same act in defiance. At least, all the Indians living outside should do it.

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