Are we living in the same country?

Giving examples of how the police serve criminal dons in India, senior journalist S Shekhar wrote, "Mafia dons cannot become messiahs." Then he holds common people responsible for the rise of criminals in India, writing, "We may not have given birth to these Frankensteins, but people like you and I are the ones who nurtured them." How? Because these criminals are seen as "Robin Hoods by the common people". "Present-day mafia bosses don the garb of social workers along with that of politicians. Having instilled fear in the people, to win sympathy, they run ambulances, decide doctors' fees and help poor girls in the community get married. They assign men to save people from suffering natural disasters." "That is why, when people even like us sing the praises of criminals, why blame politicians." Because, these people are providing services which the state, which means politicians and civil servants, are not. This has been researched by political scientist Milan Vaishnav who found that political parties choose criminals as candidates because they have money and goons to win elections and people vote for them because they cannot get services from the government. In Godfather, the undertaker comes to him for justice because the police refuse to punish the young men who beat up his daughter. Over 34% of Members of Parliament elected in 2014 have charges of serious crimes against them. And even if the police bother to file criminal charges judges allow cases to drag on for so long that the accused are then considered too old to go to prison, allowing the wealthy to evade justice by endless appeals to various courts. Last year the Supreme Court apologized to a woman who had died waiting for a verdict in her case. The woman won her case but it was of no use to her. Honor killings and lynchings are common in India. The government blames WhatsApp for carrying false messages
which lead to violence and wants them to be filtered out. The Prime Minister accused the Congress of being a Muslim Party The Congress accused him of spreading "poison of hatred and division" by saying things which are "concocted and lies". They also accused Modi of a "sick mentality" and a "peddler of untruths". In June the Congress called Modi "cruel Aurangzeb" in retaliation for being reminded of the Emergency under Indira Gandhi. The problem is not with WhatsApp but because the state is weak, wrote an editorial in the Mint. "For the state to maintain a monopoly on violence, the political elite must show the will to make it happen." The state is quick to kill people when it wants, with no hesitation or regret. "So, I urge you not to blame the government for every incident and instead introspect and look around you," wrote Shekhar. Wonder who is spreading fake news, WhatsApp or journalists like Shekhar.