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http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/indias-rape-epidemic-is-problem-of-

democracy-say-chinese-media/article4540349.ece

Today's Paper NATIONAL BEIJING, March 23, 2013

Indias rape epidemic is problem of democracy, say Chinese mediaAnanth Krishnan

The frequent rape cases cast a shadow on the quality of Indian democracy

The increasing number of rape cases reported in recent months in India has been

portrayed by Chinas state-run media in recent articles as an indicator of the failure of

Indias democracy to ensure good governance and the weakness and incompetence ofIndia's democratic system.

A commentary published on Thursday by Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper

wrote that the frequent rape cases cast a shadow on the quality of Indian democracy.

Both the gang rape case in New Delhi and the recent attack on a Swiss tourist havereceived wide media attention in China, both in official media outlets and on microblogs,

seen by bloggers as reinforcing widely-held perceptions here that India was an unsafe

country for women.

The Indian rape epidemic has not only shocked the world, but shamed the country whichprides itself on being the largest democracy in the world, said the commentary in the

Global Times , which is published by thePeoples Daily , Communist Partys official

newspaper.

India's rape problem comes from two things. India has a deeply-rooted socialdiscrimination against women. And Indias rule of law is loose and government

management is lacking. These two things are closely linked to each other, and directly

decide the level of India's social progress and the quality of its democracy, said thearticle, authored by senior editor of thePeoples Daily Ding Gang.

Why does Indias democracy fail to bring more effective rule of law, but instead allows

the worst facets of traditions to flourish and thus severely restricts India's modernisation

to this day? This is, Im afraid, a question that deserves thought from the Indian elite,Mr. Ding wrote.

The article said other developing countries had done far more than India which

consistently ranks very low on global indices on the social status of women in raising

womens social status and ensuring their safety.

That China has fared far better than India on this count has, indeed, been highlighted byseveral studies. A United Nations Development Programme report in 2010 found China

doing better than South Asian countries in improving the social and economic status of

women in the past six decades.

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Women's participation in the labour force in China was 70 per cent, compared to 35 per

cent in South Asia and the global average of 53 per cent. Life expectancy had risen to 75

years, while female literacy rates were more than double of Indias, the report said.

The Global Times commentary argued that the processes of dispelling old habits through

changing social perceptions and putting in place legal methods... to make new rules andprotect women from assaults were being impeded by India's political system.

India's democracy not only enables those deeply-rooted bad habits to survive, but evenfurther fosters them, the commentary argued. Many developing countries heading

towards modernisation are gradually accomplishing this basic procedure. But this seems

especially difficult in India. The reason lies in India's democracy.

These views have, however, not been shared by many Chinese bloggers. Following theNew Delhi gang rape case, editor of the Global Times Hu Xijin stirred a controversy on

the Chinese Twitter-equivalent Sina Weibo, saying that Indias democratic system was to

blame for the lack of law and order.

Many Chinese netizens hit out at Mr. Hu for using the case in India to justify Chinasone-party authoritarian system, with some pointing out that state media outlets, which

extensively reported on the Indian case, failed to report on a recent case in China where

local officials allegedly raped school students.

Other netizens viewed the mass protests in New Delhi with some envy, pointing out thatthe Chinese would never have been allowed to have gathered on the streets to voice their

opinions. Kai-Fu Lee, former founding president of Google China, told his 24 million

followers on Weibo that the system [in India] allows the people to take to the streets and

to expose the scar, so the government has to face it squarely.

If the scar is hid firmly, he added, it will instead fester and become inflamed, and by

that time, it would be too late to face it.

Indias democracy enables deeply-rooted bad habits to survive and even further

fosters them

Chinese bloggers say the Chinese would have never been allowed to voice their

opinions