By Albert Thyrniang
A history teacher once skipped the normal lesson to tell us, “Learn history but also learn from history. Don’t just study history. Make history. Be the first doctor, engineer, professor, professional sportsperson, professional musician and so on from your locality or village.” The pep talk has quite a lasting impact.
The US election 2020 is historic. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr better known as Joe Biden is on his way to the White House displacing the incumbent president Donald Trump. By conquering the state of his birth, Pennsylvania Biden comfortably crossed the 270 Electoral College votes to secure the presidency. In January the two-term former 47th Vice-President will be the 46th president of the United States of America. In terms of being historic the ex-senator for Delaware, Senator for 36 years will be the oldest President of the world’s most powerful country. He has repeated the rare feat (Bill Clinton was the only other when he defeated George H.W. Bush in 1992) of sending a sitting president packing after one term. The Democrat who braved personal losses (death of wife, daughter and son)had to withdraw from the race of presidency twice, in 1988 and 2008. To make such a stunning comeback at 77 is nothing short of remarkable. Enviously he has polled the highest votes in history (74 million to Trump’s 70 million according to the latest information). Hats off!
As opposed to Trump who is viewed as a hardliner, a symbol of white supremacy, a religious fanatic, an exclusive politician, Biden on the other hand is a moderate, an inclusive personality who stands for all Americans, Whites, Blacks, African, Asian and Latino origins, LGBTs. In his victory speech he presented himself as the unifier and the healer. His personal religious beliefs did not make him look down on others with a different outlook. He was banned by the Catholic Church from receiving Holy Communion on the ground that he supports abortion although he declared that while he personally believes that life begins at birth he respects those who believe otherwise.
With Biden’s win, America is moving back to sanity. Clearly voters have had enough. The four years of polarisation, rhetoric and undermining democracy were more than enough to oust the arrogant Trump. Indeed Trump’s casual attitude to Coronavirus extracted a heavy price. His initial proclamation that the ‘Chinese virus’ would disappear like magic proved disastrous as very quickly his country jumped every country in term of cases and deaths. After four years his promised health policy is still at the conceptual stage. The voters punished him for his failure on healthcare front particularly the catastrophic fight against COVID-19. Americans have learned their lessons. His catchy slogan ‘make America great again’ was nothing more than a catchword. During the four year tenure America was rapidly declining economically and otherwise. Fortunately the voters of the 50 states have corrected it.
In India when will we see reason? When will we learn our lessons? When will we reject religious polarisation and bigotry? When will we cast off majoritarianism? When will we embrace inclusiveness, unity and pluralism? When will we discard dangerous policies of the present regime? When will we be convinced that we were taken for a ride by the slogans of’Sabka Saath, SabkaVikas, SabkaVishwas’, ‘Make in India’, ‘Minimum government maximum governance’? When will we discard muscular nationalism? When will we see the actions that threaten our democracy? When will we reject calls to vote on the basis of religion and caste? When will we focus on jobs, employment, education, healthcare, infrastructure, the economy and development? When will our elections be performance and achievement based? It is scary that in 2024 Ram temple in Ayodhya will override everything else. The Americans have learnt their lessons in four years. Will we not learn ours in ten years? Will we prevent history from repeating itself?
The history scripted by the U.S. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris is even more impressive. A national daily has listed her many ‘Firsts’. A first time Senator, she is the first woman, first Black and first Indian-American to be elected as Vice president of the United States. She is one of only three Asian Americans in the Senate and she’s the first Indian-American ever to serve in the chamber besides being the first woman and first African-American and Indian-origin person to be the district attorney for San Francisco. Born to two immigrant parents- a Black Jamaican father and an Indian mother and called the “female Obama” Ms. Harris is the only third woman to contest the Vice-presidency. In her victory speech the lady with roots from Chennai said she will not be the last to occupy the office of the Vice-President.
It is surprising that the land of possibilities, as it is often acknowledged, is able to elect a woman Vice-President only in 2020. Since 1776 (when America became independent) there has never been a woman Vice President. It took 244 years to have one. How long will be the wait to see a lady President? The records of third world countries should put USA to shame. Way back in 1960 Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) had the first woman Prime Minister, In 1966 Indira Gandhi was India’s Prime Minister. Some countries which have produced female heads of state/heads of government much before the US are: 1974 Argentina, 1976 Central African Republic, 1979 UK,1980 Bolivia, 1980 Portugal,1981 Norway. 1992 the Philippines, 1996 Bangladesh, 1996 Pakistan, 1996 Iceland.Currently modern democratic countries like Germany, New Zealand, Croatia have women Prime Ministers. The US is perhaps conservative to granting equality as women’s right to vote was achieved after more than half a century of struggle to finally become a reality in 1920.
For our benefit let us return to India. Not only the 1.3 million Indian-American voters who played crucial roles in key battleground states like Pennsylvania to ensure Ms Harris’ and her boss’s victory but the whole of India is celebrating her greatest achievement. While we in India rejoice and pride ourselves whenever individuals of Indian origin abroad make a name for themselves we need to reflect on our own records. In 2004, unruly and uncivilised opposition and protests of‘ patriots’ forced Sonia Gandhi to relinquish the Prime Minister’s chair in spite of being a constitutionally eligible candidate as the Supreme Court had upheld her citizenship. A lady MP threatened to tonsure her hair in protest if the then President of the Indian National Congress was invited to be sworn in. Even today the wife of a former Prime Minister is subjected to disrespectful comments, ridicule and even character assassination. She has to deal with being called a foreigner and an Italian. The hate extends to her son and daughter for no reason.
We might have had women occupying the office of the President, Prime Minister, Speaker of Lok Sabha, Deputy Rajya Sabha Chair Person, Chief Minister et al but political empowerment of women is still a long way away in the country. Right from the highest decision making body, the parliament to the grass root institution, the Panchayati Raj men dominate unchallenged. The current Lok Sabha has the highest number of women representatives since independence but they number only 78 accounting for a mere 14.39% of the total strength. In the Rajya Sabha out of 242 members only 25 are women. In March 2019 a report revealed that only 9% of MLAs and MPs were women. The Women’s Reservation Bill that proposes to reserve 1/3rd of all seats in the Lower house of Parliament and in all state Legislative Assemblies for women will probably never see the light of day as men cling to their power. Though the Rajya Sabha passed the bill in 2010 the Lok Sabha has never taken it up. Apart from conservative outlook abominable crimes against women are the order of the day. Political parties continue to allot tickets to candidates accused of crimes against women.
The Northeast is seen as progressive corner of the country but women are almost kept out of political representation. In all the states in the region there is massive participation of women voters but their representation is plausible. This column is too limited to prove the point with facts and figures.
Matrilineal Meghalaya is no better. We have hardly any women (three) in the Legislative Assembly. In the ADCs, KHADC has two women, JHADC nil and GHADC has one to show. In the traditional institutions women are still barred from being members of the Dorbar Syiem (Councils of traditional chiefs). Only recently the courts permitted women to participate in the Dorbar Shnong (Village council). In Garo Hills though Nokmas are women the actual work is mostly done by a male, in most cases by the son in law (chawari). Something is drastically wrong which needs attention, debate and deliberation to rectify the imbalance particularly in the political sphere. Of course, rape and sexual assaults are such a common occurrence that someone branded the state the ‘Abode of Crime against Women’.
The US election results are fascinating but are we propelled to see the implications?