Mass murderer becomes parliamentarist in India

[Fake Boris]

What's the big deal? it says she spent 11 years in jail.

[Dinner]

Nothing is wrong. In fact, it is perfect. We should get old Charlie Manson to run for office in India; they'd love him.

[Boris Godunov]

Ok, here's the Cliff's Notes:

Lower caste woman gets kidnapped and repeatedly raped and beaten by some upper caste men.

After escaping, woman gets a bunch of thugs together, goes back to the village and demands her kidnappers be brought to her for justice. But the men are nowhere to be found, so the thugs line up 21 men who didn't have anything to do with it and shoot them.

The people involved get captured, and prison terms are handed out. Devi claims all along she never shot anyone and that she didn't mean for the men to get killed, it was her out-of-control thugs who did it all. Nonetheless, she serves the longest jail term (11 years) for being the "mastermind." In the meantime, her reputation grows to mythical proportions among the lower castes.

So, paroled from prison in 1996, she uses her reputation to run for parliament and wins. She loses her seat in the next election, however, but then wins it again. By this time, her "revenge for rape" story has turned into "I was defending the people."

In 2001, she gets whacked. The assassin supposedly claimed to be seeking revenge for the massacre, but in actuality it appears he was put up to it by Devi's estranged husband.

[Az]

Well, in this case, nothing seriously out of order here, except the fact we discuss it after she's been whacked.

[chequita guevara]

Her death was reported a few years back. How exactly did she come back from the grave to win a seat in government?

[Boris Godunov]

Read the whole thread, che.

[chequita guevara]

I did, just not at first.

I saw the movie Bandit Queen, btw. She's something of a hero in India.

[Dr Strangelove]

This is why it's a good idea to prohibit felons from voting and having many of the usual priviledges of citizenship.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Then again, the fact that she's a hero to a lot of lower caste types might just be an indicator that "law and order" and "justice" might be relative things, available in relative doses, depending on the status of one's birth. Perhaps centuries of being treated like a bunch of kaffirs to be dealt with at the will of the high-caste citizenry has a bit of an influence on the lower caste types relative tolerance for Devi's solution to the problem.

[Fake Boris]

So reactionaries here are trying to say that convicted felons should not be allowed to run for office. Why?

[Dinner]

Maybe because it is a position of special trust and known felons can't be trusted.

[Fake Boris]

and corporate whores can be trusted? let the people decide who they trust.

[Heresson]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Okay, I got a detailed account here:

http://www.goodbyemag.com/jul01/devi.html

This woman died years ago. Why the hell are you bringing this up now as if it is news?

I do not. Read my post. I've found an interesting story and wanted to share it.

[Boris Godunov]

"Mass murderer becomes parliamentarist in India" implies it happened recently and she's still around. It's deceptive.

Should have been "Mass murderer once became parliamentarist in India, but she's dead now, so who the **** cares?"

[Heresson]

You're right, it should be in past tense, but it is an interesting story no matter if it's happened 10 years ago or today.