and no its not NZ ......
OPINION Murderers and thieves are likely to be elected when Indians vote tomorrow, and that's putting the world's largest democracy at risk, writes Ruth Hill.
As we are forced on to the shoulder of the road by a ministerial cavalcade of limos and police cars, Bobi the Goan taxi driver glowers and grips the wheel as if wringing some politician's fat neck.
"Thieves, they are all thieves," he mutters. A life-long supporter of the Congress party, which headed the last coalition government, he does not know who will get his vote this time.
He says the new generation is nothing like old-school Congress leaders Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv, both assassinated while serving prime ministers. "These ones only look after themselves till there's an election, then it's taps for every house and new roads."
He is not alone in feeling cynical about the coming election. Under Indian law, convicted criminals can contest elections as long as the case is still under appeal. With the current backlog in the judicial system, this could be 30 years.
Of the 543 MPs elected in 2004 to Lok Sabha - India's House of Commons - 128 faced charges for serious crimes, including murder, extortion, threats, kidnapping, theft and rape.
After being elected, these "honourable members" got down to the serious business of amassing wealth and power through bribes, kickbacks, human trafficking and even murder.
The corruption is not limited to so- called "lawless" states, like Bihar (where the manufacture of fake pharmaceuticals is a major industry) and Uttar Pradesh, but the infection has spread nationwide and no political party is immune.
Coal Minister Shibu Soren was forced to resign after being convicted of murdering his former private secretary and 11 others. He was acquitted on appeal.
Parliament broke up on March 1 after meeting for just 46 days in the previous year. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee criticised a group of errant MPs, expressing his hope they would all be defeated in the coming election. "You do not deserve one paise [cent] of public money."
The 2004 election was the first time candidates were forced to disclose assets and criminal convictions - not that it appeared to put off voters. Unsurprisingly, the idea did not originate with a political party. It was a group of disgruntled law professors, calling themselves the Association for Democratic Reforms, who won a suit in the Delhi High Court in 1999.
The reforms were opposed by politicians from across the spectrum, who managed to defer their implementation for five years till forced to do so by the Supreme Court.
The association was also behind the formation of the Forum for Clean Politics, which, with The Times of India newspaper, is running a campaign to muster voters called "No Criminals in Politics". A website, NoCriminals.org, details candidates' criminal records.
However, the campaign faces powerful vested interests and voters inured to dirty politics. The root cause, according to many commentators, is the festering sore of religious tensions and caste-based politics, which resurged in the 1990s.
Rabble-rousing is a time-honoured electioneering tactic. Indira Gandhi's grandson, Varun Gandhi, a candidate for the opposition right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, has been arrested on charges of making "hate speeches" against Muslims and Sikhs, and in the process has made himself a martyr for Hindu nationalism.
Another BJP candidate and current member of state government, Maya Kodnani, a minister for women and child welfare and higher education under the previous government, has also been arrested for her part in the 2002 riots in Gujarat in which 109 people died.
Witnesses said Ms Kodnani, a gynaecologist, distributed swords to the blood- thirsty mob and fired her own pistol into the crowd.
For 20 years, no party has won enough votes to govern alone. Governments have been patchwork coalitions of smaller parties - there were 16 in the last one - pandering to different sectors.
Parties seem prepared to do almost whatever it takes to win power - even cosying up to criminals.
When they're not being intimidated and forced to hand over their voting registration cards, voters in poor rural areas and urban slums have become accustomed to being wooed with free saris, nose pins, the promise of free weddings for their children and even gifts of guns for those in restless border states.
Though the middle class (those earning 600 to 3000 rupees a day, (NZ$24.50 to $120) grew from 2 per cent to 5 per cent of the population in the decade to 2005, the vast majority of Indians earn much less. Election time is the only time anyone pays them any attention. Academic talk of corruption may have little sway with these voters, for whom a new sari is of more immediate interest.
Pravati, a medical professional from Mangalore, agrees "democracy is a wonderful thing". "But the problem in India is lack of education . . . some of our MPs are practically illiterate. Everyone knows their rights these days, but no one knows their duty." Her daughter, Manisha, says coalition politics is to blame for political deadlock. "India is like a bucket of frogs: one tries to climb out and all the others jump on him and drag him back."
The pan wallah from Lucknow reckons all politicians are "greedy" but he is voting for one with a difference: Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who is standing for the Samajwadi Party. "Very good actor, action man, y'know?" he says, firing his imaginary automatic weapon.
The actor is out on bail after being sentenced to six years in jail in 2007 for buying weapons from bombers who attacked Mumbai in 1993.
The Indian Supreme Court has just ruled he cannot contest the election.
* Ruth Hill's trip to India was sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
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