Even the real bandits admire them.

Politicians are high-tech bandits, say the retired bandits of Chambal in Madhya Pradesh. "We fought for the rights of workers and farmers and those humiliated by caste abuse. Today netas have so much money they seem to have machines printing cash in their homes," said former bandit Malkhan Singh. "Today's netas are crorepatis. Win one election, they become tycoons overnight," said BS Tomar, nephew of notorious bandit Paan Singh Tomar who was killed in a shootout with the police in 1981. Although bandits have gone the elections in those areas are being fought by criminals and local toughs. India is proud to have the largest number of VIPs in the world. Apparently only 450 are provided with armed guards, which is not true because IAS officers are provided with official cars with red beacons and armed guards for their homes. There are about 4,800 IAS officers in India. In an indication of the number of VIPs the government is to issue 12,000 tags for their cars so that they do not have to pay toll on highways. Meanwhile our soldiers are dying because of faulty ammunition from a factory in Maharashtra. The armed forces are not using a type of anti-aircraft guns due to fear. All ordnance factories are owned by the government so they are allowing the production of defective ammunition. It is well known that political parties are happy to put up criminals as their candidates for election because they have the money to buy votes and the goons to intimidate opponents, wrote S Shekhar. But he goes on to spread the blame on to ordinary people. "We may not have given birth to these Frankensteins, but people like you or me are the ones who nurtured them." Politicians are very happy to be given a way out by experienced journalists like Shekhar. Those who commit high level crimes are allowed to flee the country and stringent rules are enacted against ordinary people. Why do people vote for criminals? They vote deliberately for criminals because they are able to deliver services that the state should be providing anyway, found Dr M Vaishnav. The problem is that there is no standard for services in India so companies are able to get away with shoddy services, wrote R Kher. When criminals get to become lawmakers it is only natural that they will control the police. It is common practice for the police to refuse to register a crime committed by a politician or his family. The Supreme Court has just realised that 46% of post in forensic labs are lying vacant. When criminals are not going to be apprehended or imprisoned why waste money on forensics? When RK Kapoor writes that there was more freedom under British Raj it is a tragic indictment of the Indian state. There is no solution. We will still be discussing this in the next century.