The UP government debt has risen from Rs 830 billion in 2001-2 to Rs 1.88 trillion in the last fiscal and will reach Rs 2.04 trillion in the current year. UP has to pay Rs 333 billion which comprises interest payment of Rs 150 billion and repayment of capital of Rs 183 billion. Total borrowings by the UP government stands at Rs 339 billion which means that UP is taking on new debt to pay off the old one. This means that the state will have no money for infrastructure or development or will have to raise taxes even further. However, UP spent Rs 20 billion to erect a large number of ugly statues to present and past politicians. Tamil Nadu has debt of Rs 890 billion which will rise to over one trillion if even some of the promised bribes are distributed to voters. People have been promised color TVs, mixers, goats and cows among other bribes to vote for different gangs. It matters not a jot who wins the elections because people will have voted for the goodies and not the politicians. It would be best if the next state assembly consists of TVs, mixers, goats and cows and all the criminal politicians are dumped to where they belong. At least goats and cows will not steal, fight or murder. Sadly economists in India do not give us a total of all the debt incurred by the central and state governments and total interest payments compared to total income. It is possible that they are scared of writing the truth. At least a dozen activists using the Right to Information Act to expose corruption have been killed. Indian politicians are no different to the Ndrangheta in Italy or drug gangs in Mexico. By controlling the police they are much more successful.