There are many I know who are yet completely gobsmacked. America has voted for Democrat Joe Biden to be the 46th President of the United States of America. But at the time of writing there is a refractory outgoing President Donald Trump whose irrational, mendacious outraging over civilised democratic processes is leaving the world stunned. The world’s oldest democracy seems to be disintegrating as Trump, like an obdurate high-school bully, refuses to concede defeat. It is a time-honoured US presidential contest convention that the defeated candidate acknowledges the victory of his opponent. But Trump is Trump, who is renowned for making a complete travesty of political protocol and public decency, eviscerating overnight the gold standards of bipartisan, mature, elegant handovers.
American democracy currently is ruptured. The fact that the man in the White House is unashamedly conspiring to delegitimise the valid votes of the American people to somehow create a constitutional crisis is an appalling apotheosis of not just his mental depravity but worse, his immoral disposition. A lily-livered Republican party has coalesced with Trump in this ignoble project. For US politics, it appears like the road to perdition, and raises fundamental questions on institutional debilitation that are threatening the future of elected democracies. India is another candidate that appears inebriated with the hubris of ballot-box success for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), prompting it to assume a dangerous authoritarian complexion. There are stark parallels between the world’s two largest democracies.
President Trump has had no compunctions in crushing institutions of democratic governance, and let’s face it, he has disgraced that consecrated Oval Office like no other (even Richard Nixon’s sleazy Watergate tapes scandal appears relatively as just a ham-handed snooping job that was handled with abecedarian recklessness). One has lost count of the number of senior White House staff, including cabinet ministers, who have been abruptly terminated because perhaps the President had a bad night’s sleep after watching CNN. It was such a pathetic joke that I often wondered whether Trump was actually still thinking he was a reality TV impresario of his The Apprentice show. That the most powerful man in the world even triggered threats of a nuclear annihilation against old foe North Korea on Twitter, was astounding, farcical. It appeared that the world was watching Monty Python in fast forward mode.
The laundry list of Trump’s peccadillos and wilful infringement of democratic conduct was surprisingly casually dismissed as the unpredictable character of a radical anti-establishment maverick. It was a mistake. Over a period of time, Trump’s intrinsic racism, Islamophobia, anti-multilateralism, sexual transgressions, authoritarianism, bigotry, narcissism, and even his impeachment, were normalised. Even a decade ago, any other political personality would not have just been besmirched by the ugly scandals, they would have been buried. But after every sordid stench of turpitude, Trump in fact became more emboldened. The free press was targeted as fake news, and Trump labelled his critics as anti-American who wished to subvert American sovereignty. A similar political idiom is heard in India.
Let’s face it, all political parties, including regional satraps leading provincial formations in India, have collectively contributed to the huge public cynicism of our democratic and constitutional institutions. No one has a clean sheet here. The moment the Bihar Assembly elections concluded (it was a closely contested battle with many seats changing hands with meagre differences in vote count), the Opposition promptly blamed the state government and the Election Commission. Instantly, there were several takers for that allegation. The fact that 48% of US voters (an impressive 72 million) and the entire Republican party believes that Trump actually won the elections and are supporting his legal obstructionist rampage reveals a deeper moral crisis; loss of faith in independent institutions. In the long-run these are injurious developments for democracy, and usually hasten towards autocratic, opaque systems that are paradoxically paraded as more translucent. It is also observed that leaders deliberately create a polarised infrastructure (institutions, social media, mainstream media, policing, etc). Their followers have a pathological fealty to their rabble-rousing ways which aggravates matters. Even the judiciary is included in this disruptive enterprise; why else would Trump confidently announce that he expects a favourable verdict from the Supreme Court on his fabricated allegations of voter fraud?
The Indian judiciary too faces a litmus test, as it has come under the public spotlight following the much-publicised January 2018 press conference when four former Supreme Court judges warned of a serious threat to the integrity of India’s highest authority for fair justice. Thereafter, it has been snowballing from one controversial judgement (or the absence of one) to another, that has caused deep concern to the common man. The recent hurried listing of a celebrity television anchor’s bail plea, when thousands of cases of ordinary people and Left-wing activists are pending for months and years, is symptomatic of the general perception that in India the rich and the famous are first among equals. If you are pro-establishment, even better.
Trump appears convinced that a Supreme Court packed with conservative judges (including his opportunistic appointment of Amy Coney Barrett) will have a charitable disposition towards him. That is a frightening prospect. The regulatory (CBI, ED, NIA, RBI, DD, CBFC, EC, etc) and media capture in India has led to it being branded with President Recip Erdogan’s Turkey and Vladimir Putin’s oligarchic Russia. India is widely perceived to have become an intolerant, illiberal democracy where free speech is being asphyxiated to death. India’s institutions are fragile, and falling by the wayside like nine pins.
Like America, India faces a crisis of morality. America needs Abraham Lincoln today. And if ever India needed Mahatma Gandhi after 1947, it is now.
Sanjay Jha is a former national spokesperson of the Congress. He is currently suspended. The views expressed are personal.
American democracy currently is ruptured. The fact that the man in the White House is unashamedly conspiring to delegitimise the valid votes of the American people to somehow create a constitutional crisis is an appalling apotheosis of not just his mental depravity but worse, his immoral disposition. For US politics, it appears like the road to perdition, and raises fundamental questions on institutional debilitation that are threatening the future of elected democracies.