Romania should take lessons from India.

Last month the government in Romania passed an ordinance at night to decriminalize cases of corruption of government officials in which the financial damage is less than $47,800. The government claimed it was to reduce overcrowding in jails. "We took a decision in the government and we are going to press ahead," said Prime Minister, Sorin Grindeneau, as tens of thousands of people came out in freezing cold to protest the decision. "The PSD won elections [in December] with a huge vote. The government's power is legitimate," said Liviu Dragnea, leader of the left wing Social Democrat Party, or PSD. The protests continued and a few days back Grindeneau vowed to withdraw the ordinance and send it to parliament for debate. Liviu Dragnea will benefit from the decree because he is banned from becoming prime minister, having been sentenced to 2 years in prison for vote rigging. Crooks become legitimate by winning an election, that is the biggest charm of democracy. By now people had lost faith in the government so protests continued. After its bluster the government withdrew the ordinance in a humiliating climb down. The Justice Minister has paid the price by having to resign. But the protesters are vowing to continue because they believe that the government will bring the  decree back quietly after sometime. Romania should have learnt from India. On 8 November, at 8 PM, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned all Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. He couched it as a fight against black money, which suddenly turned every citizen into a crook, because everyone carried these notes, for daily shopping. He has turned himself into a crusader, fighting for the innocent poor against the crooked rich, promising more handouts, as all other parties have been doing since independence. The old 'divide and rule' of conquerors and handouts for the poor, practiced so effectively by the Congress for decades. Indira Gandhi coined the phrase 'garibi hatao' in 1971, which means 'banish poverty' which is being used by Modi in 2017. So successful has this been that India proudly hosts the largest number of poor people in the world, 15.2% of whom are undernourished, or starving. Strangely not one politician has been caught with black money, nor any of the fake political parties, formed to launder black money. If Modi really wants to get rid of corruption all he has to do is pass a law to finish all cases within 2 years and no bail for politicians. A 105 year old man was in jail, while former minister, Sukh Ram, caught red-handed with bribe money has been granted bail because he is 86 years old. Romanian politicians should take tuition from our lot. Proclaim every act, however sly, as for the poor and ask judges to drag cases on for years. That's the way to do it.