Ponmala
The respect and authority you command by way of the moral weight you carry is Soft Power. Both America, the greatest democracy, and India, the largest democracy, have been shedding it fast under Trump and Modi respectively.
Just as Trump was being pampered by Modi in India for being a special friend, a Bajrang Dal activist from Kerala publicly warned sit-in protesters of Delhi’s ShaheenBagh of dire consequences after the American President left. But his counterparts in Delhi did not have the patience to wait until Trump concluded his “path-breaking” visit. Northeast Delhi burned during Trump’s visit, killing 38 and injuring 300 at least. When asked about the violence, Trump said: “As far as the individual attacks, I heard about it, but I didn’t discuss that with him (Modi). That’s up to India.” Bernie Sanders, Democratic presidential frontrunner, slammed Trump for taking a hands-off stand. He tweeted: “… Wide-spread anti-Muslim mob violence has killed at least 27 and killed many more. Trump responds by saying ‘That’s up to India.’ This is a failure of leadership on human rights.”
Well, Sanders should have known by now that Trump does not care a hoot for human rights or anything else that is noble about an individual’s or nation’s character. His relationship, be it with close chums like Modi, with other countries or even his own country, is transactional. He likes Modi a lot, because he thinks Modi and India are of use to him. He likes Putin even more, because the Russian President was of great help to him for becoming the American President. Expecting that help a second time, he has betrayed America’s geo-political interests to Putin. He even went to the extent of believing the words of Putin on Russian interference in the American presidential election over those of his own intelligence people, and publicly stated so.
Trump has succeeded to a great extent in leading America into splendid isolation – a nation that is as self-centred as he is selfish. He has taught a vast section of Americans that the larger good of the world and upholding of noble values should be of no concern to them. Their only concern should be their material prosperity and the overwhelming economic, military and scientific might of their nation – Hard Power. And think of it, he is supported in it by the staunchest of Christians, who one thought would love especially the weak, the poor and the needy! Trump is Nietzsche’s master man who heads a master race of White Supremacists.
In the Anti-Christ, Nietzsche has this to say about pity and compassion: “This depressive and contagious instinct runs counter to the instincts that preserve and enhance the value of life.” He saw them as a hindrance to the creation of the superman, who would emerge from any man with superior potential that completely masters himself to create his own values as against conventional Christian ‘herd morality.’ This loathing of compassion by Nietzsche was a recipe for the Nazis to distort his superman into their brutal master man, who would eliminate all inferior humans to create a world that would be populated solely by a master race.
Both Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose were patriots of equal stature, but with a big difference. The Mahatma relied on the Soft Power of moral values and nonviolent methods. Netaji relied on the power of the gun. The Mahatma appealed to the power of goodness, on which democratic polity is based.
We are now in a worst form of slavery than of foreign rule, a slavery under the master race of Brahminic high castes, which was already existing here centuries before the Nazis thought of creating one. Compassion and goodness are frowned upon, because they challenge the supremacy of the master race by uplifting the poor. They are moving fast towards a regime of no reservation, no foreign charities, no subsidies, no allocation for social schemes… But there is no dearth of money for grandiose schemes like bullet train, missile-proof plane, record breaking statues, foreign jaunts, publicity stunts, manned mission to the moon…
One had thought that a change to the presidential system of government would only serve the purpose of keeping Modi in power for a lifetime. But on second thought, will a fractured opposition ever be able to come together and offer a stable and credible alternative to the BJP? That is next to impossible. Over 500 princely kingdoms came together to form one nation, heart and soul, but the superego of today’s petty regional ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ will not allow that to happen again under the parliamentary system. The only possible option appears to be the emergence of another Mahatma whose Soft Power of moral sway over the people will ultimately overthrow fascist Modi or his successor. Perhaps, only a presidential election of the French or American type can open the way for it.
