India, the world’s biggest democracy, is besotted with the global superpower and is tuning in to the American presidential debates.
India and the United States can be staggeringly similar. Both are fractious democracies where a healthy freedom of speech coexists with widespread corruption. In both countries, elections cost a packet.
However, India is a parliamentary democracy in the mold of the United Kingdom, its former colonial master. The US has a presidential system and candidates square off in a televised debate that may not be substantive but makes great for theater. Indians are increasingly obsessed with this American theater as they are with Harvard, McKinsey and Coca Cola.
In this video, I answer questions on WION TV, an Indian news channel, about the debates and the election campaign, which I called “the theater of the absurd in the land of Manifest Destiny.”
In a wide-ranging interview, I point out how Trump “gets away with everything” and that his threat to send Hillary Clinton to jail is historic. This threat has never been made in American history to a rival candidate.
Watch the video from 3 minutes 50 seconds.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
Photo Credit: Pamela Moore
