The numerous think-tanks that routinely place India at near bottom in democracy and media freedom rankings haven’t uttered a word about how this trial of Donald Trump is a direct and frontal assault on democracy.
The next time some “liberal” journalist asks the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal to respond to American concerns about the so-called decline of democracy in India, the authors think the only valid and legitimate response should be loud laughter. The fact of the matter is: even as campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections ended, events in far away New York have made it clear that democracy in the United States is now a joke. Former President Donald Trump, who is also the Republican contender for the November 2024 presidential elections, has been convicted on 34 counts. His purported crime? In 2016, he paid off a porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about their alleged sexual escapade in 2006, since the revelations could have damaged his 2016 campaign for the presidency of United States. Besides, he is accused of falsifying his business records to pass off the payoff as a legitimate business expense. Of course, Stormy Daniels never kept quiet and has made millions milking the scandal.
Despite the intense and tiring campaigning going on in India for the Lok Sabha polls, the authors kept an eye on the Donald Trump trial. The judge Juan Merchan is an active Democrat who contributed funds to the Joe Biden campaign in the 2020 elections. The prosecutor Alvin Bragg was elected on a ticket that promised he will send Trump to jail. The jurors belong to the ultra “liberal” cohort in New York, a group that despises Republicans with passionate and often irrational ferocity. The trial lasted six weeks during which Trump was compelled to sit inside the courtroom as a defendant, denying him his fundamental right to campaign across America as a presidential candidate. Not only that, the judge issued a gag order that prohibited Trump from speaking anything about the case and the trial. Even better, the star witness, whose testimony helped the jury convict Donald Trump, is Michael Cohen. This gentleman is a former attorney for Trump and a convicted felon who has lied to investigators, courtrooms and the US Congress. Even during the trial against Trump, he confessed that he had stolen money from the Trump campaign fund. How credible would be the testimony of such a witness is for anyone to guess.
Things get even more funny. The judge Juan Merchan will pronounce his sentence on whether Trump will go to jail or not. Theoretically, Trump can be sent behind bars for four years. The sentencing will happen just a few days before the Republican Party formally announces its presidential candidate. The mainstream media in America is devotedly “liberal” and it makes no bones about its hatred for not just Trump but also conservatives who mostly happen to be Republicans. But so farcical has been this trial that legal “experts” appearing on virulently anti-Trump media platforms have been saying repeatedly that there is simply no case against Trump and that any sensible judge and jury would have thrown out the case. They are unanimous that the conviction will be overturned during appeal. Yet, the Democrat “establishment” seems hell bent on denying Trump his right to contest against 82-year-old incumbent President Joe Biden. The reason is simple: in every opinion poll conducted so far, the disapproval ratings of Biden are at record highs and Trump leads Biden by comfortable margins. His conviction and sentencing in July will make this one as the most consequential elections in American history. But look at the choice before American voters. They get to choose between Biden who (along with his family) faces serious and credible allegations of widespread corruption and Trump who is clearly a misogynist con man.
There have been many “pundits” of Indian origin (or otherwise) who have been lecturing India in the last few weeks about the importance of democracy and of level playing fields. The authors haven’t heard them talk a word about the banana republic that the United States has become. The numerous think-tanks that routinely place India at near bottom in democracy and media freedom rankings haven’t uttered a word about how this trial of Donald Trump is a direct and frontal assault on democracy. Indian “liberals” who routinely lament the “death” of democracy in India are too busy speculating if the I.N.D.I Alliance can upstage the “dictator” Narendra Modi to talk about the soap opera going on in the United States. Living in faraway India, ordinary citizens still think that not only is democracy robust in the United States, but that the judiciary there is far superior than in India. There is little doubt that Indian judiciary is a broken system where getting justice for an ordinary citizen has become a joke.
But look at the US. Even as Trump was being convicted, another trial in Chicago concluded. Back in 2022, a police officer in Chicago went up to a woman running naked on the streets. She assaulted him, stole his police car and ran the car over him before speeding away. As she faced trial, the lady was hired as an accountant by the Chicago Department of Family & Support Services. One day before Trump was convicted, a “liberal” judge acquitted this lady of attempt to murder charges by agreeing with the defence plea that the accused suffered from temporary insanity while driving a police car over a police officer. Of course, she was sane enough to be hired as an employee by the government in Chicago.
Most Americans missed another small bit of news coming out of California as the Trump trial reached its climax. Naturally, hardly any Indian would have heard of this story. Susan Eggman has been a die-hard Democrat state senator in California for more than a dozen years. Along with New York, California is a bastion of liberalism. A few days ago, she publicly lambasted the Democratic Party and resigned. Why? In California, people have been “buying” children online and sexually abusing them. The accused are usually acquitted in liberal California because such perverts are deemed to have human rights. A Bill was introduced in California recently to make online “purchase” of children a crime. The Democratic Party opposed the Bill, prompting a die-hard party loyalist like Eggman to quit in disgust.
There is no point in gloating over this descent of America into a banana republic. India itself faces many serious challenges that needs the attention of Indians. Yet, the next time, some racist and uppity American or European lectures Indians on democracy, we must laugh at their face.
Yashwant Deshmukh is Founder & Editor in Chief of CVoter Foundation and Sutanu Guru is Executive Director.