[jessaustin]

It's really a form of fingers-in-ears hear-no-evil self-deception. That is, USA is certainly corrupt (e.g. access to US Senators is more dependent on donations than state of residence), but in different ways than other nations. So the typical maneuver is to say "look at what's going on over there: it's corrupt and we don't have it here so thank goodness we aren't corrupt". Situations like this lead the typical maneuver astray because as you say this particular corruption didn't fly in India while it happens many times a year here in USA.