Maha criminals in Maharashtra.

Since the Right To Information Act came into being in 2005 at least 10 activists, the highest number, have been killed in Maharashtra, followed by 6 each in Gujarat and UP. This out of 60 who have been attacked. Most of the attacks have been to do with land grabbing. Land prices in Mumbai are in fairy tale territory. Last year Homi Bhabha's bungalow, with a plot size of 1,593 sq meters, in Mumbai sold for Rs 3.72 billion, which works out around $3,600 per sq foot. That compares to rates in Manhattan in New York. The glib answer usually given is that India has more people than the US so the pressure on land is greater. True, but we are not talking about the MNREGA scheme here. We are talking about how many private individuals can afford such rates. There are just 14,800 dollar millionaires in India, of whom 2,700 live in Mumbai. Compare that to New York, which has 389,000 millionaires, 27 times that of the whole of India. The US has over 10 million millionaires. Strangely, India has a very high proportion of billionaires at 90, compared to 536 in the US, which probably shows that a lot of wealth is from very dubious sources. About 50% of the wealth of the super rich is in real estate so it is in their interest to keep prices at astronomical levels. Naturally, such abnormal levels of prices attracts all kinds of low life, just as flies are attracted to rotting flesh, and land grabbing is probably the most lucrative enterprise in Mumbai and anyone wanting to shed light on this dark underworld will be attacked. But surely, police and officials are beavering away diligently to expose crimes which are being punished severely by the courts according to strict laws elected by our most revered politicians? Er, no. Out of 288 members of the present assembly in Maharashtra 165 have criminal charges against them, with 115 having charges of murder, kidnapping and crimes against women against them. Of the BJP, which forms the government, 48 or 61% have criminal charges against them and of the Shiv Sena, which controls the municipality, 48 or 76% have criminal charges against them. The Campa Cola case shows exactly how criminals make money out of real estate. While the residents have lost their homes not a single official or the builders have been punished. But criminals are sensitive souls and are deeply hurt by being exposed. So the Maharashtra government has issued a circular to the police to arrest anyone criticising politicians on a charge of sedition. Before we hiss in outrage we have to admit that they have a point. All politicians are innocent unless proven guilty and they can never be proven guilty because cases go on forever. Heads we win tails you lose.