Democracy, North Korea style

WHEN I READ in this newspaper last week that the dictator of North Korea has decided to make his teenage daughter his official heir, it made me laugh.

- TAVLEEN SINGH

And cry a little for our beloved Bharat Mata. As someonewho has campaigned relentlessly and aggressively against dynastic succession, I wondered if Indian politicians who have turned their constituencies and their parties into private estates were embarrassed when they read this news. Some of the shenanigans we have seen from Rahul Gandhi is a consequence of his having been brought up to believe ruling India was his birthright. Fear not, I have no wish to repeat what I said last week.

North Korea is widely considered the worst country in the world. It has been led by the Kim dynasty since it was created, and this family has presided over an evil empire. While the ill-fated citizens of North Korea are often starved of food to the point of living in famine conditions from time to time, the Kim dynasty has squandered what they believe to be their personal wealth on modern weapons, including the nuclear kind. If Kim Jong Un goes ahead with his succession plan and some courageous North Korean citizen tries to challenge him, he will die a terrible death in some unseen dungeon. Foreigners spend years in jail simply for travelling to the wrong country.