No megalomaniacs in power here

It’s unfortunate that the United States is stuck with a leader who is obsessed with publicity rather than performance

Every other week brings with it a series of shocking news stories about what the president of the United States has been up to. It was amusing the first time around, but things have taken a darker turn this year. On one day, he hawks a dubious cryptocurrency scheme online; on another, he is advertising cars for a billionaire freeloader who claims to support him. It’s unpredictable, disturbing, and farcical all at once, and no one seems to have a clue about how this will end.

The past few months have seen an endless stream of invective, attacks on the press, selling of public assets to private corporations, and accusations of bowing down to businessmen who have allegedly paid for his election campaign. The only thing that brings me relief, when I read these outlandish reports, is how nothing like this could ever happen in India. We would never elect a megalomaniac or publicity hound to power.

I think Indians are a lot smarter than Americans when it comes to making political choices and are more capable of seeing through any sort of sham quickly. Indians would never bow down to someone with no qualifications, no integrity, or no conscience, let alone make that person their highest elected representative. Can you imagine convicted felons in our Parliament? I, for one, cannot. I think this is because we are trained to spot con artists from a distance and are capable of recognising when someone is lying to us for votes. It’s also why we will never have the kind of problems the United States is currently dealing with.

Take education, for instance, and recent efforts to undermine that system across America. Teachers are being vilified everywhere, universities are being attacked for encouraging freedom of thought, students are being arrested for flimsy reasons, and books are being banned because this sort of playacting allows the least educated to think they are making wise decisions for the betterment of their country. That sort of posturing would never happen in India because we are not an insecure lot. Here, we believe that education empowers people, which is why our government would never undermine education in any way. It’s also why our universities routinely outrank other world-beating institutions in countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Then there’s that quibble about freedom of the press. It’s unfortunate that the American president has spent so much time and energy attacking every news outlet except those that blindly worship him. It’s as if he holds press conferences only for channels or media platforms that propagate his messages of division and hate. I don’t see something like that ever happening here either, because we have always supported the idea of journalism separate from political influence. We would never have governments withholding advertisements in newspapers, or jailing editors for failing to toe a party line, and it’s another thing that makes me proud. It’s high standards and transparency that makes Indian journalism more respected than journalism from countries like North Korea.

As for selling out to business interests, can you imagine anything as inane being replicated here? The US President has been accused of pandering to billionaires and handing over not just public resources but access to personal data. He has allegedly allowed private entities to make decisions about taxes paid by American citizens. Nothing like that could occur here because it would mean private companies gaining control over our data, our airports, or even forested land. It boggles the mind.

Hate has become the currency of choice in America, which is one of the many things that widen the gap between that country and ours. India is about love, mutual respect, and peace. It’s why we are the envy of two or three countries, and why I struggle to make sense of the thousands of Indians who are so desperate to migrate each year. I keep asking myself: what are they seeing that I cannot?

I believe the problem lies with how Americans confuse publicity with performance. This isn’t the first time they have supported an actor and assumed that people who shout on television know what it means to govern. They tend to forget that men obsessed with attention, with being front and centre of everything, and desperate for cameramen covering their PR stunts, are interested in anything but themselves. It’s why the United States has elected someone they refer to as a strongman, and whom the world routinely treats as a clown. This would never happen in India.

When he isn’t ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.

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