“The frequent rape cases cast a shadow on the quality of Indian democracy”
The increasing number of rape cases reported in recent months in India has been portrayed by China’s state-run media in recent articles as an indicator of the “failure” of India’s democracy to ensure good governance and “the weakness and incompetence of India's democratic system.”
A commentary published on Thursday by Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper wrote that “the frequent rape cases cast a shadow on the quality of Indian democracy.”
Both the gang rape case in New Delhi and the recent attack on a Swiss tourist have received wide media attention in China, both in official media outlets and on microblogs, seen by bloggers as reinforcing widely-held perceptions here that India was an unsafe country for women.
“The Indian rape epidemic has not only shocked the world, but shamed the country which prides itself on being the largest democracy in the world,” said the commentary in the Global Times, which is published by the People’s Daily, Communist Party’s official newspaper.
“India's rape problem comes from two things. India has a deeply-rooted social discrimination against women. And India’s rule of law is loose and government management is lacking. These two things are closely linked to each other, and directly decide the level of India's social progress and the quality of its democracy,” said the article, authored by senior editor of the People’s Daily Ding Gang.
“Why does India’s democracy fail to bring more effective rule of law, but instead allows the worst facets of traditions to flourish and thus severely restricts India's modernisation to this day? This is, I’m afraid, a question that deserves thought from the Indian elite,” Mr. Ding wrote.
The article said other developing countries had done far more than India – which consistently ranks very low on global indices on the social status of women – in raising women’s social status and ensuring their safety.
That China has fared far better than India on this count has, indeed, been highlighted by several studies. A United Nations Development Programme report in 2010 found China doing better than South Asian countries in improving the social and economic status of women in the past six decades.
Women's participation in the labour force in China was 70 per cent, compared to 35 per cent in South Asia and the global average of 53 per cent. Life expectancy had risen to 75 years, while female literacy rates were more than double of India’s, the report said.
The Global Times commentary argued that the processes of “dispelling old habits through changing social perceptions and putting in place legal methods... to make new rules and protect women from assaults” were being impeded by India's political system.
“India's democracy not only enables those deeply-rooted bad habits to survive, but even further fosters them,” the commentary argued. “Many developing countries heading towards modernisation are gradually accomplishing this basic procedure. But this seems especially difficult in India. The reason lies in India's democracy.”
These views have, however, not been shared by many Chinese bloggers. Following the New Delhi gang rape case, editor of the Global Times Hu Xijin stirred a controversy on the Chinese Twitter-equivalent Sina Weibo, saying that India’s democratic system was to blame for the lack of law and order.
Many Chinese “netizens” hit out at Mr. Hu for using the case in India to justify China’s one-party authoritarian system, with some pointing out that state media outlets, which extensively reported on the Indian case, failed to report on a recent case in China where local officials allegedly raped school students.
Other netizens viewed the mass protests in New Delhi with some envy, pointing out that the Chinese would never have been allowed to have gathered on the streets to voice their opinions. Kai-Fu Lee, former founding president of Google China, told his 24 million followers on Weibo that “the system [in India] allows the people to take to the streets and to expose the scar, so the government has to face it squarely.”
“If the scar is hid firmly,” he added, “it will instead fester and become inflamed, and by that time, it would be too late to face it.”
Keywords: crimes against women, Indian rape case, Chinese government reaction, Indian democratic system
We as a good citizen its up to us to do something.
There are two stages for the best solution.
First one is, We have to vote for the candidate who have enough knowledge about democracy and also the respect to the democracy.
And the second stage is to let him do there job, by not engaging into any protest or any strike.By strike you are just throwing stone at your own house.
If you have the roof leaking at your house, will you rebuild the house from scratch again or will you just change the roof?
We can change the leaking roof in the next election. As simple as that.
This is ofcourse to do with the approach india run democratic instituions. The Criminality, law
and order is a political problem in Indian democracy. There is wide spread criminality in
politics. All the democratic instructions are corrupt and used by the politicians for their
oblique objectives. The police force in the country is used as tool to threaten ordinary law
abiding citizens, but for power individuals such as politicians and other strong public and
administrative figures the police is like a Pet Dog, who is ready do anything illegal on order of
their political masters. Indian politics is a Shame and Stain on worlds largest democracy.
To some of the folks who have commented above - Don't China bash all the time. It's not about China or India being right. It's about women getting raped and the law keepers look the other way. Think of your sister, mom, daughter or aunt in place then you'll turn wiser! Get it?
Democracy cannot be blamed for sorry state of affairs. Problem lies in the poor management. On one hand, India produces one of the best management graduates, who are sought after by all MNCs, but why are we not able to rope them in for better management of administration. On another note, it is not politicians alone who are responsible. We fail collectively and citizens are equally responsible for such bad
situation that we are being criticized not only by domestic media but from all over the world.
A completely misleading title! The Chinese article in question does not
anywhere accuse democracy as a system of governance. It only says that
there is a failure of democracy in India.
Those correspondents who have responded to this by pointing to such favourite notion as lack of reportage of similar crimes in India do a disservice to our own progress.It is not a secret that we are facing a huge governance failure. You do not need a Chinese writer to discover this.We have to act on what we already know to be true!
After reading this article, I am reminded of the novel 'Animal Farm' written by George Orwell. Mr. Ding plays the role of squealer, the mouthpiece of a dictator.
I wonder why Mr. Ding is using India as a yardstick to criticise democracy, when there are older and time tested democracies like Canada and Europe.
As regards to is comparison someone please remind him that China is no utopia. And in India, unlike in China, the government does not force abortion of healthy unborn foetus. India doesn't use tanks/trucks to run over protesters. Media in India is not a puppet of the government and are free to criticise the latter, whenever appropriate.
Unfortunately for Mr. Ding, an average Chinese citizen is clever enough to see through his deceptive article. And fortunately for him, the Chinese citizen is not strong enough to raise his voice.
The Chinese media again deliberately ignores the fact that it was the
same democracy which allowed public outrage and subsequent pressure on
the Govt to prepare a stronger law.Now how do we explain this behavior
of the Chinese media?.Its important to point out that when Dehli
gangrape got international coverage, almost every foreign news paper
pasted an introspective article about rape problem within their own
nation from Pakistan, USA , Singapore etc.Strangely Chinese media was
the only one to shy away from introspection about rape issues within
their own nation, to my knowledge. The reason for it is obvious, a can
of worms will open with questions like : "Why China has still does not
recognize Martial rape as criminal offence?" etc. Its ironical and
bizarre that for a nation that endured the worst of rapes in WW2,its
non-democratic Govt to not address the rape. Though we can learn from
China by increasing the police force.
India is a highly discriminating country. Minorities are oppressed.
Dalits are oppressed, Women are oppressed.All sorts of social and
economic problem are causing revolts like Kashmir, Naxals, north east.
Army and Police are used for brutal oppression against its own people.
Lack or delay of justice is rampant. For eg. See case of Sanjay Dutt
who was convicted after 20 years and the same day all privileged class
is asking for his mercy.No one thinks about those who died. Only
certain privileged people enjoy all the benefits while rest of the
country rots in utter poverty. Politician fool the people and do
nothing for them. For some reason i do agree with what Chinese think
of India.
One tends to agree with Chinese view as many Indians now feel that democracy here is
helping only political leaders who think that they are beyond any law as is evident by many
attacks on citizens and policemen and who think they can loot public money with impunity.
With all drawbacks, I am still proud of my country wherein people can
demonstrate their anger against the government FREELY.And this is true
democracy.
India is a failure due to corruption, mockery, lack of discipline, fear and incompetence. India diplomats and politicians lack professionalism and India more backwards than it was during independence.
We have lost our vedic culture where women did whatever they wanted to do independently. We have turned into an abusive nation where its justified to treat women as a low being who is often treated as a slave needing permission to do things constanly proving her worth to exist. Most often mother in laws teach their sons to mistreat their wives probably as a surival instinct to control her son for her self centered reasons. How will we solve it by increasing punishment for abuse so no one dares and break the evil of burden of supporting parents after marriage for the boy.
Of course there is no rape in China, but only state rape. Even if there is, the state controlled media will be banned from reporting.
The Chinese give a very simplistic answer which suits them.The reason is
1.Too many females wanting jobs where unemployment and lack of development exists.2.Backward upliftment and casteist society.(The caste column in application should be abolished).3)Language
politics.4)Lack of technology Modernisation in work at village level.5) Very high population.
Look at their country and you will see that they went into higher technology and high speed rail which gives massive employment.The Indian politician is the reason.Both the two top politicos are dead
set on refusing such technology changes to the people.The result is endless migration of technies causing the lower level to exhibit their talent.Indirectly the two people are the wrong people to sit at the top.No dynamisn in thinking which is required for high population
growth rate.
its really a matter of shame for us. I hope Indian govt will open its eyes soon..
Whatever may be the motto of these Chinese utterances, their tacit eternal support to our estranged neighbour, I go with the Chinese philosophy that the Indian democracy right now is flimsy and needs strengthening. Countrymen, Arise, Awake and Stop not till we all attain the real fragrance of freedom and Assert power through ballot in impending elections.
The author needs to understand that if these had happened in China, the government will decide if people should know about it at all - and if people know about it, what portions they should know.
A free and vibrant media - which is not available in China - brought these cases out in the open, exposed our weakenesses of the police force, the chinks in our moral hypocrisy, the shame of Indian male. This free, fair vibrant media is a possibility only in democracies. An Incompetent government can be exposed - only in a democracy.
The government controls the institutions that give the development (and rape) numbers in China, it is no wonder that the numbers look good. However, China s record of human rights violations on its own citizens, including rape is worse than India.
India has plenty of problems. We are slow because we are a democracy -But that is our strength and not a weakness. Try writing an anti-china article like this in China and see if you escape without an arrest.
Do they mean to say that there is no crime or corruption in China and it is a paradise just because they do not follow a democratic set up?
This is 100% true.We cannot boast of ourselves of the largest democracy in the world. With out rule of law and the good governance there is no need for a democracy. The illiterates criminals rowdy elements occupy the political executive and rendering the administration a mockery. At least now the police and other law implementing bodies rise to the occasion.
Which one is better??
Indians -- not doing anything
Chinese -- doing too much
The reason for the rise in this behaviour of youths is perhaps due to decrease in girls to boys ratio in the country which has resulted in fewer and fewer marriage prospects for the young males. The pent up frustration of the youth is showing in this kind of gang violence against women.
“failure” of India’s democracy to ensure good governance and “the
weakness and incompetence of India's democratic system.”
100% true BUT hard to swollow.
I totally agree with the Chinese editor in his views. When everyone
knows the crime has been committed by the culprits and have all the
evidence against them, still our slow law procedure is taking its time
to prove them guilty. The juvenile board of India put down the idea of
decreasing the age limit from 18 to 16. This shows our rotten
democratic system. When a boy is capable of committing a crime of
adults, why he should not be punished according to crime and not for
age? For what we are waiting, the country needs an urgent change in
its law and order system. The courts have to deliver justice more
faster. After Delhi rape case number of rapes in the country are on
hype. Who fears in the country where everyone has relatives in Police
and Political parties? Its urgent to break this nexus. Law and Order
and basis of a strong community, but in India it seems everyone has
rule of its own to follow. The country is in deep crisis, I will say
that. I appreciate the views of Chinese editor.
For China, *every* problem in India is a problem of democracy. Why is
Hindu giving this much importance to the PRC propaganda machine? When
the protests at India Gate were happening, bloggers in China were
expressing their appreciation for our democratic system. So obviously
the machine had to write something in response. They don't let their
citizens use google and facebook and they lecture us on the merits of
democracy. Please.
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