Listen America! India Did it First

The American elections has everyone looking on in horror as a nightmare unfolds into everyday reality. Stock markets have been on a roller-coaster with the White House  being converted into Trump House. Can one compare a person whose qualities include being a  sexual predator, misogynist, racist, duplicitous, business failure  with someone cleared by the FBI for being  stupid enough to use a  private email server for government business.  Can the 2016 US Presidential elections  be  really dubbed as a real life instance of the pot calling the kettle black?

But, this is nothing new. India went through such an election many moons ago. At the time of the 2014 elections the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Narendra Modi, spewed  vitriol at the Congress I; and so did the Congress I against him. Modi, who was later to become the 14^th  Prime Minister of India had been Chief Minister of Gujarat in the period of the Gujarat riots. The BJP was also reeling under financial scams in the state of Karnataka. The Congress I  was no vestigial virgin, it was at the helm during the 1984 Sikh riots. The incumbent UPA II  government (2009-2014) led by the Congress I stood mute as its allies  made hay while the sun shone.  Could there have been a greater example of the pot calling the kettle black? 

Another important point which needs to be recognised was the use of a candidates anatomy  to highlight their suitability for the post. It was Narendra Modi who trumpeted the size of his chest – 56 inches during his Prime-Ministerial campaign. Trump followed suit much later with the size of his hands.

The world and the US needs to acknowledge that though the US leads India on many fronts and India lags behind in many economic and social indices, this great country set the standard on negativity and opponent dissing in its 2014 elections. As a nation India should be proud that the US is happily following in another tradition that began here.

Now that Trump has followed India’s lead and  so won the US elections, what other areas, can he as the future 45^th President of USA take inspiration from?   One needs to look at the benchmarks created by the leaders that the Indian electorate have chosen for themselves.

Since the arrival of the Modi Government the people of this land have been fed with food that has created a sense of toxic nationalism and invincibility. Dieticians, which include India’s beloved PM  Modi, have fed the country with the history of science and this lands contribution to it. Indians have grown stronger with servings that has included plastic surgery was invented in India as  was Genetic Engineering. Other not so well known dieticians cooked up and served the production of electricity through elephant urine with other ingredients and so on.  

Besides the diet, there are also master classes on aesthetics being conducted. Institutions, people that did not fit into the socio-religious-philosophical aesthetics of the ruling party were ceremoniously hounded out - the media and society called out the government’s actions, but the government diktat prevailed. Cultural institutions of national and social import are now headed by people who, though never at the top of their field, scored well in being in the good books of the government or their ideologues.   Thus, the history of this land is being reconfigured to meet an ideology that is divisive and anachronistic and goes against the very concept of pluralism in all its forms.

Further, the Indian government led by Modi has not been very kind to the defense veterans of this land. Trump has taken a leaf from the Indian governments book  and  has bad-mouthed war veterans and the families of those killed in action.

The easiest way for Trump to ‘Make America Great Again’ will be to continue following the path created by the  Indian government and their ideologues - satiate the electorates hunger with ‘new history’. Trump has been industriously dishing out lies and half-truths and that has left a trail of divisiveness, insecurity, bitterness and lack of trust for the government and the election process. He has already shred the electoral process and has promised to dismantle Obamacare, he will remove the Environment Protection Agency, renegotiate international treaties and so on.  There is every chance that Creationism will explain the Big Bang in US schools. 

Modi and Trump  differ on getting the world to listen to them. One of the first things that Modi did as a PM was to visit countries that have high Indian expatriate populations. He used this community to gain international acceptance. The world helped Modis cause by inane  gestures that meant a lot to India craving for recognition – World Yoga Day comes to mind, and more recently the UN Headquarters being lit up for Diwali .  Trump does not have to do that. He already has the world’s ears because his deplorable qualities are going to lead the world’s most powerful nation.’

Trump wants to Make America Great Again by winning. He has said    “We're going to win so much -- win after win after win -- that you're going to be begging me: 'Please, Mr. President, let us lose once or twice. We can't stand it anymore.' And I'm going to say: 'No way. We're going to keep winning. We're never going to lose. We're never, ever going to lose.". If the impact on the world and the US following Trumps victory is any indication of things to come we know the fallout of Making America Great Again.