The Economist - USA (2022-02-12)

30 Asia TheEconomistFebruary12th 2022

unrulybjpdeputiesfromthebuildingfora

year,untiltheSupremeCourtintervened.

SowhatdoIndia’s5,000electedstate

andnationallegislatorsdo,iftheyspend

solittletimelegislating?Manyarededicat­

edtoservingtheirconstituents.Butmany

appearmoredevotedtowinningbackwhat

theyspentgettingvotedin,andmore.Ac­

cordingtotheAssociationforDemocratic

Reforms,a researchgroup,a record43%of

mps who wonseatsin the 2019 general

electionhadbeenchargedwithacrime,

with29%bookedforgraveoffencessuchas

rapeandmurder.Thisrepresenteda 109%

increaseonthecohortoftenyearsearlier.

Crime seems to pay: analysis shows

thata candidatewitha criminalrecordis

threetimesmorelikelyto winthanone

without.Similarly,onewithdeclaredas­

setsofmorethan50mrupees($670,000)is

sixtimesmorelikelytosucceedthanone

with less. Term after term, compulsory

declarationsofassetsrevealsuspiciously

hugerisesinthewealthofincumbents.

If richesandruthlessnessarecrucialfor

nabbingvotesatstreetlevel,theyarealso

neededatthetop.Here,thebjpmusttakea

bow,havingstrucka gusherwithaninge­

niousmechanismcalledelectoralbonds.

Introducedin2018,ostensiblyasa reform

toweedoutillicitcash,theschemeallows

forunlimited,opaquefinancingofpoliti­

calparties.A reporterwouldbeunable,for

example,totracelinksbetweena billion­

airewhosefortunespikedaftersecuring

lucrativedealsfromthegovernment,and

hisor herdonations to enabling politi­

cians.Thesoleindicatorofpoliticalfund­

ing that is now disclosed is the total

amountreceived(seechart2).Notsurpris­

ingly,therulingpartyisgainingthelion’s

share.In 2020 thebjp’sdeclaredassetsof

$655moutweighedthoseofthenext 51 po­

liticalpartiescombined.Morestriking,its

stashroseby443%injustfiveyears.

In most democracies, courts would

havetossedout electoralbondsasafla­

grantobstructionofvoters’righttoknow

who wasfundingtheir politicalparties.

Butinanothersignofcreakingdemocratic

infrastructure,India’sSupremeCourthas

draggedouthearingsontheissueindefi­

nitely.Norhavethetopjudgesbotheredto

takeupotherobviouschallengestonormal

democratic functions,suchasthestrip­

pingofstatehoodfromandbifurcationof

theerstwhilestateofJammuandKashmir

in2019.Lowercourtshavesometimesbeen

morevigilant,butnotalways.

Perhapsnotsurprisingly,India’sdemo­

craticdriftisreflectedinitsdiplomacy.De­

spitemuchbackslappingwithdemocratic

leaders,andmembershipingroupssuch

as the Quad, a club of big Indo­Pacific

countriesworriedbyanincreasinglybel­

ligerentChina,Indiaoftendeclinestojoin

otherdemocracieswhenitcomesto,for

example,condemningtherecentmilitary

coupinnext­doorMyanmarorthethreats

byRussiaagainstUkraineandotherneigh­

bouringdemocracies.

AccordingtothecountkeptbyAmeri­

ca’sStateDepartmentofvotingattheun

GeneralAssembly,overthepastfiveyears

India hasmatched America’sownvotes

just28%ofthetime.Thatcomparesto23%

forChina,30%forRussiaandover50%for

morestalwartdemocraticallies.This“co­

incidenceratio”ishardlya goldstandard

for democracy: America annoys other

countries for arange ofreasons. Butit

seemstoreflectthedown­on­democracy

viewsofmanyIndians,whorecentlytold

pollstersthattheywouldbya largemargin

behappytoabolishParliamentandaccept

armyrule,morethanitdoestheconstitu­

tionthathasforsevendecadespreserved

theircountryfromjustsucha fate. n

Cash cow

India, national political parties’ declared income

2019-20, $m

Source:Associationof Democratic Reforms

2

Bahujan Samaj Party

Nationalist Congress

Pa r t y

Trinamool Congress

Communist Party of

India (Marxist)

Congress

Bharatiya Janata Party

5004003002001000

S

nails andfermentedfish,bamboo

shavings and cured buffalo skin: these

are among the delights that Wannee

Junrut has laid out on trays at her stall in

Lao Market in Bangkok, Thailand’s cap­

ital, every morning for the past 28 years.

Hawking is the family business: Ms

Wannee’s mother tended the stall before

her, and her children are also in the

trade. They may soon need to find other

work, however. The local government is

threatening to demolish their stall.  

When the Thai army seized power in

2014, it vowed to bring order to the

streets of Bangkok. Tens of thousands of

hawkers ply their trade on the city’s

roads, selling not just food but every­

thing from clothing to cleaning products.

Bangkok’s local government reckons

they are a nuisance, responsible for all

manner of ills including bad hygiene and

obstructing traffic. In 2014 it launched a

campaign called “returning walkways to

the public” and started evicting hawkers,

licence or no licence. It claims to have

since closed nearly 75% of informal

markets and shooed away some 12,000

vendors, nearly 60% of the total. 

Hawkers are “a health­and­safety

issue”, says Ton Panon, a property devel­

oper. He lists a litany of complaints: they

force pedestrians onto the road; they do

not clean up after themselves; they pour

cooking oil down the drains, clogging

sewers and exacerbating flooding (ven­

dors pooh­pooh these claims). He does

not want them banned from the city—

“They are a way of life here”—but wishes

they could be relocated to designated

food courts and markets. Many Bang­

kokiansshareMr Ton’s frustrations.

Facebook groups such as ThailandFoot­

path, which chronicle broken and

blocked pavements, have hundreds of

thousands of members.

Vendors and skint backpackers will

suffer if the stalls vanish. So, too, will

ordinary Bangkokians. The city’s resi­

dents get nearly half of their weekly

meals from street vendors, suggests one

survey. Many stalls cater to people with

low incomes. Besides, banishing hawk­

ing from pavements will not magically

render them safe and passable: Bang­

kok’s motorcyclists seem convinced that

they are an extension of the carriageway. 

StreethawkersinBangkok

Sidewalk ballet

B ANGKOK

The city is trying to bring some order to its pavements

Quit stalling