8 ms·

While I have no sympathy for razorpay but I'd just like to point out that laws in India are much more heavy handed than a country like US. People are thrown in

While I have no sympathy for razorpay but I'd just like to point out that laws in India are much more heavy handed than a country like US. People are thrown in jail for social media posts and sometimes just for liking a social media post(1) Twitter has been having a very hard time operating in India too(2) and routinely censoring stuff so while IANAL just remember that things are very different in different parts of the world. (1) https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/arrested-over-a-facebook-status-7-times-people-landed-in-jail-for-posts-against-politicians/story-ON1jukoStfV6T8aYcJEVGJ.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/arrested-over-a-fa...? (2) https://restofworld.org/2022/twitters-censorship-india/ https://restofworld.org/2022/twitters-censorship-india/

sateesh 4y ago
But as the article suggests why was there a need to share data of all donors, they could have shared only those that originated outside India.
- sa1 4y ago
  There were no transactions originating outside India, the payments were configured to accept only Indian cards.
  - hef19898 4y ago
    Well, my inner cynic assumes that authorities know that. And that is exactly the reason why the wanted the records. Might be a tad hard to crack down on foreign donors, harassing domestic ones on the other hand...
- ahamedirshad123 4y ago
  LoL. They don't recieve payment from foreign countries.
anovikov 4y ago
And this is billed as "world's largest democracy". Wtf is the bullshit we are made to believe? Why don't we just stop pretending and relabel most "democratic" countries as just "pro-Westnern"?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > And this is billed as "world's largest democracy". Wtf is the bullshit we are made to believe? Why don't we just stop pretending and relabel most "democratic" countries as just "pro-Westnern"? India is not pro-Western, and none of those things upthread are inconsistent with democracy. They are illiberal, perhaps, but not all democracy is liberal democracy.
  - gruez 4y ago
    >none of those things upthread are inconsistent with democracy. They are illiberal, perhaps, but not all democracy is liberal democracy. This line of reasoning feels like a motte and bailey to me. When that fact is being trotted out by supporters it's almost always a comparison to liberal democracies. I doubt when Indians say "we're the largest democracy" they're comparing themselves to russia.
- kasey_junk 4y ago
  India is pretty decidedly not pro Western and hasn’t been since independence.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  India is a "non-aligned" country, it's not "pro-Western". They have good relations with Russia, which is their main weapons supplier. The West tends to cultivate them in relation to China, at which point calling them "the biggest democracy in the world" is simply a propaganda tool to sell them as the 'good guys' to public opinions (vs. China who are obviously the 'bad guys'). But the issues between India and China are independent of any "pro-Western" stance or political system, they are purely based on conflicts of interests between those two countries, including left-overs from the British Empire when it comes to border disputes.
RicoElectrico 4y ago
India is weird. It's not really called authoritarian (rankings don't classify it as such), but there are many similar stories of government dysfunction and overreach. Maybe someone else has a word for them?
- azifali 4y ago
  It has slid into authoritarianism.
  - digestm 4y ago
    Exactly
- parsimo2010 4y ago
  Corrupt is an appropriate word for this kind of behavior. The government does not officially condone the behavior, and it would probably function well if the policies were followed as written. But instead people get some power and abuse it. India is not unique, many countries struggle with corruption.
  - voakbasda 4y ago
    Many? Which countries do not suffer from corruption? This seems to be the human condition. As the old saying goes, “power corrupts…”. It’s not of question of “if” a country is corrupt, it is “how much”.
    - monkey_monkey 4y ago
      It's more a matter of scale and how embedded it is in everyday life. Getting almost anything done without having to wait months / years / decades requires some form of black money payment ie a bribe.
    - colechristensen 4y ago
      For example: have you personally ever had to bribe someone, thought about it, or even considered it a possibility?
harpic 4y ago
- ahamedirshad123 4y ago
  Doctored video? What are you smoking? He posted the original video. And the channel has deleted the video from their YouTube channel. For Non Indians here, TimesNow is the channel and that news reporter is Laura Ingram of India.
  - harpic 4y ago
    When you edit a video to cut the provocation and just show the response- that is doctoring. You denying this video resulted in beheading and riots ?
    - mrguyorama 4y ago
      If you start riots or literally murder someone because of some junk you saw in a short video, maybe the video isn't the problem.
  - dang 4y ago
    Please do not respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. Your comment would be ok without the swipe at the beginning. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- methusala8 4y ago
  - tomrod 4y ago
    Non-sikh here. Sikhs are terrorists? That doesn't sound right. Is this some new hogwash or some such?
    - 4y ago
satya71 4y ago
The laws in India are quite similar to US. Unfortunately, current practice and interpretation is far from what was envisioned in the constitution.
ignoramous 4y ago
> ...laws in India are much more heavy handed than a country like US. AltNews alleges that RazorPay banned their account (and later restored it) without cause: https://archive.is/R9OJ8 https://archive.is/R9OJ8 To me, it seems like RazorPay simply buckled under pressure. Why wouldn't they, they need to be in bed with the central govt, or their business falls apart pretty quick.
lifeplusplus 4y ago
Heavy handed? They are straight up barbaric not democratic. More similar to China then democratic countries

sateesh 4y ago

But as the article suggests why was there a need to share data of all donors, they could have shared only those that originated outside India.

sa1 4y ago
There were no transactions originating outside India, the payments were configured to accept only Indian cards.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Well, my inner cynic assumes that authorities know that. And that is exactly the reason why the wanted the records. Might be a tad hard to crack down on foreign donors, harassing domestic ones on the other hand...
ahamedirshad123 4y ago
LoL. They don't recieve payment from foreign countries.

anovikov 4y ago

And this is billed as "world's largest democracy". Wtf is the bullshit we are made to believe? Why don't we just stop pretending and relabel most "democratic" countries as just "pro-Westnern"?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dragonwriter 4y ago
> And this is billed as "world's largest democracy". Wtf is the bullshit we are made to believe? Why don't we just stop pretending and relabel most "democratic" countries as just "pro-Westnern"? India is not pro-Western, and none of those things upthread are inconsistent with democracy. They are illiberal, perhaps, but not all democracy is liberal democracy.
- gruez 4y ago
  >none of those things upthread are inconsistent with democracy. They are illiberal, perhaps, but not all democracy is liberal democracy. This line of reasoning feels like a motte and bailey to me. When that fact is being trotted out by supporters it's almost always a comparison to liberal democracies. I doubt when Indians say "we're the largest democracy" they're comparing themselves to russia.
kasey_junk 4y ago
India is pretty decidedly not pro Western and hasn’t been since independence.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
mytailorisrich 4y ago
India is a "non-aligned" country, it's not "pro-Western". They have good relations with Russia, which is their main weapons supplier. The West tends to cultivate them in relation to China, at which point calling them "the biggest democracy in the world" is simply a propaganda tool to sell them as the 'good guys' to public opinions (vs. China who are obviously the 'bad guys'). But the issues between India and China are independent of any "pro-Western" stance or political system, they are purely based on conflicts of interests between those two countries, including left-overs from the British Empire when it comes to border disputes.

RicoElectrico 4y ago

India is weird. It's not really called authoritarian (rankings don't classify it as such), but there are many similar stories of government dysfunction and overreach. Maybe someone else has a word for them?

azifali 4y ago
It has slid into authoritarianism.
- digestm 4y ago
  Exactly
parsimo2010 4y ago
Corrupt is an appropriate word for this kind of behavior. The government does not officially condone the behavior, and it would probably function well if the policies were followed as written. But instead people get some power and abuse it. India is not unique, many countries struggle with corruption.
- voakbasda 4y ago
  Many? Which countries do not suffer from corruption? This seems to be the human condition. As the old saying goes, “power corrupts…”. It’s not of question of “if” a country is corrupt, it is “how much”.
  - monkey_monkey 4y ago
    It's more a matter of scale and how embedded it is in everyday life. Getting almost anything done without having to wait months / years / decades requires some form of black money payment ie a bribe.
  - colechristensen 4y ago
    For example: have you personally ever had to bribe someone, thought about it, or even considered it a possibility?

harpic 4y ago

ahamedirshad123 4y ago
Doctored video? What are you smoking? He posted the original video. And the channel has deleted the video from their YouTube channel. For Non Indians here, TimesNow is the channel and that news reporter is Laura Ingram of India.
- harpic 4y ago
  When you edit a video to cut the provocation and just show the response- that is doctoring. You denying this video resulted in beheading and riots ?
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    If you start riots or literally murder someone because of some junk you saw in a short video, maybe the video isn't the problem.
- dang 4y ago
  Please do not respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. Your comment would be ok without the swipe at the beginning. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
methusala8 4y ago
- tomrod 4y ago
  Non-sikh here. Sikhs are terrorists? That doesn't sound right. Is this some new hogwash or some such?
  - 4y ago

satya71 4y ago

The laws in India are quite similar to US. Unfortunately, current practice and interpretation is far from what was envisioned in the constitution.

ignoramous 4y ago

> ...laws in India are much more heavy handed than a country like US. AltNews alleges that RazorPay banned their account (and later restored it) without cause: https://archive.is/R9OJ8 https://archive.is/R9OJ8 To me, it seems like RazorPay simply buckled under pressure. Why wouldn't they, they need to be in bed with the central govt, or their business falls apart pretty quick.

lifeplusplus 4y ago

Heavy handed? They are straight up barbaric not democratic. More similar to China then democratic countries