If
you sort of guessed this is about my relationship with my students in my professional
engagement as a teacher in my retired life, you couldn’t be more wrong. The
relationship I am going to talk about spans across the seas, via land, sea and
air routes.
It
is about what the India’s prime minister is teaching the American president.
They are, if you have studied history of the past two decades or so, birds of
the same feather and they are flocking together. Modi’s helmsmanship helping
Trump weather heavy seas.
It
was in November 2016, at the stroke of midnight between November 7th
and 8th, Modi announced the so-called demonetization of high end
currency, only to introduce a higher end currency soon after.
The
date and timing are significant. At the dawn of next morning in the USA, give
or take a dozen hours, Trump era began. Trump could not wait to get the
transition period behind him. I would suspect he was re-enacting what Modi did
before the latter was sworn in, inviting SAARC honchos to his swearing in
ceremony. Here, Trump did, even before his administration was instituted,
started talking about policy matters, sidelining the so-called China-one policy,
praising Vladimir Putin, insulting Mexico, and kept waiting the “special
relationship” card holder Theresa May waiting and all that. The student beating
the teacher at his own game!
In
the first week of his presidency, even before the executive branch was anywhere
near being filled up, Trump used all kinds of executive powers he was tutored
that he did have to get rid of TPP and more significantly, affecting the “undocumented
aliens”, ordinary citizens and Green Card holders in the here and now, he “banned”
entry of foreign nationals from a select few countries that just happened to
have Muslim majority populations. This was par for him, as through the campaign,
he asserted (I would not want to add the qualifier “falsely” which would imply
that once in a while he speaks the truth) that terrorism is exclusively the
product of Islam. Never mind, IRA was all Roman Catholic (years earlier).
Now,
to the parallels between Modi’s demonetization and Trump’s entry ban executive
order. If you feel exceptionally charitable you may say that the roll out of
both was severely botched. If you do not feel so, both smacked of being the
front end of the I-cannot-be-wrong mindset that both Modi and Trump harbour.
From
news reports, all of them ostensibly “fake news” from the protagonists’ perspective,
the minions were kept out of the loop. In the case of India, the governor of
RBI was reduced to a rubber stamp. That perhaps was more inclusive than what
Trump did to his secretary of defence and homeland security apparatus. Trump
did better than Modi. Of course, Modi did not have Bannon at his side. Amit
Shah is OK but he cannot do double duty, one at BJP HQ and the other at 7, Lok
Kalyan Marg, the erstwhile Race Course Road.
What
did happen in both the instances? Both of them walked back many steps, but
seemingly moving forward. They were doing Michael Jackson’s moon walk, better
than the dancer-cum-musician ever did.
Here,
Modi was the teacher and, to be sure, he was not bettered by his acolyte. Thank
the more responsive US judicial system.
The
whirlpools both created are slowly draining out, but not before unleashing
severe damage to the country, as much as to the protagonists’ egos. The student
is raring to be the teacher and the teacher is refusing to let go his first-mover
(by about 30 months) advantage. Let us wait and see. Hoping for lasting impacts.
Daring
to dream is the job of the fool.
Raghuram
Ekambaram
5 comments:
'Enjoyed' reading this take. Wonder what future has in store for both the countries with such tunnel visioned opinionated and arrogant leaders.
'Enjoyed' reading this take. Wonder what future has in store for both the countries with such tunnel visioned opinionated and arrogant leaders.
The courts there had more spine
Why "enjoyed" within quotes, Aditi ... You were surprised that I could discern parallels across seas;) A cynic can do these things!
If not January 2018, on January 26th 2019, DJT is the Chief Guest at the Repiblic Day parade. Of this, you can be sure :(
RE
Thanks Balu ... the judicial system appears better. What happened to Sasikala may be a point of reference
RE
Post a Comment