What the World is Reading

The weekly paints a bleak picture of India's parliamentary democracy: "India's legislators have a habit of unruliness...

The Economist / A tarnished triumph

The weekly paints a bleak picture of India’s parliamentary democracy: “India’s legislators have a habit of unruliness: unsurprisingly, perhaps, when many—including over 100 currently—face criminal charges. But a special chaos prevailed during this debate. There was almost constant barracking and chanting; stray backbenchers raged inaudibly for the television cameras and unknown reasons. Some consider their constituents to be more impressed by strong words than sense. But it also reflected an ill-tempered display of horse-trading, floor-crossing.”

The Washington Post / With Indian politics, the bad gets worse

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The newspaper said the Lok Sabha proceedings touched a new low with the controversy. “”Even by Indian standards, it was bad.” It warned nascent democracies not to make India a role model: “It was also a reminder to the rest of the world that Indian politics is a no-holds-barred affair.”

The Christian Science Monitor / Indian Government’s unstable win

The newspaper noted that the vote was Manmohan Singh’s biggest victory so far but adds: “…the triumph comes with strings that may weaken his Government’s prospects in upcoming general elections.” The strings, according to analysts, are: “The UPA was forced to cut deals with smaller, regional parties whose support may prove unreliable. The Government will suffer from claims that its allies bribed members of the BJP to vote with it.”

Time / Winning ugly

Referring to Somnath Chatterjee comment that July 22 was “a very sad day in the history of Parliament”, the magazine says “even India’s jaded electorate, which is accustomed to political scandals, was stunned by the blatant horse-trading and strident mudslinging”. Although the Congress Party has “lived to fight another day”, the question is: “How much did the Congress Party trade away to save the nuclear accord and its political skin? Politicians can only hope India’s long-suffering voters are willing to turn a blind eye to the messy foibles of their elected representatives one more time.”

The New Statesman / Same old story

While the ruling UPA has been badly tainted by the notes-for-votes controversy, the English weekly warns the BJP against complacency: “the party is no stranger to corruption allegations itself. In 2001, the BJP’s president at the time, Bangaru Laxman, was caught on film casually accepting the equivalent of a £1,500 bribe.” The magazine adds that unfortunately nothing much happened: “After the initial uproar, things soon returned to normal.”