On India and democracy

G.S. Edwin's stand may seem to have a powerful argument though in essence it played more to emotion than to reason (India and democracy, Jan. 6). His description of legislature, judiciary and administration is fine. But what makes the recipe work isn't just the ingredients -- it's the execution.

For a vast majority of the poverty stricken rural population of India, seeking justice ends in tears far more often than in triumph. Although the process of democratization is accelerating, the Indian Parliament is an agglomeration of noisy interest groups. Let alone having vision and program for the progress of the nation, these leaders change (break away from/or come back to) the parties like one clicks icons on a computer. Except for a few officers who follow their consciences, the others representing the judiciary and administration play to the tune of these politicians because their appointments, transfers and promotions depend on them.

Referring to the U.S., regardless of its shortcomings, the social security that stretched a safety net beneath every American family is definitely a crowning achievement of America's welfare state. Probably, but for this, the anti-government rhetoric there would have been far worse than what it is in India.

D. PRABHAKAR

Jakarta