Satish C. Bhatnagar : The midterm elections in the US coming up on Nov. 06 and 5-yearly parliamentary elections in India, though seven months away, have so much in common. Since the day in June 2015, when Trump announced his candidacy for the US presidency to the very last day before the election in November, 2016, Trump was discounted by 90 % of the polls and political pundits. His election victory is unmatched in the history of the United States. The same was true about Modi in India. During the campaign for the 2014 elections, he too was alone in his vision of India, and saw the rainbow of a massive victory. Also, Trump did not get the support from his Republican Party. Similarly, most of the old guards of the BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) did not pull behind Modi before and after the elections.
Consequently, both of the leaders, instead of getting some respite in a honeymoon period after election victories, their respective opposition parties have been sharpening their knives in pulling them down – no respect for the verdict of the people. It seems democracy is turning into new kind of mobocracy! Modi has faced already a non-conference motion, and Trump is likely to face impeachment.
I think Democracy has started gasping for life both in the US and India, as the respect for the rule of law and for the duly elected offices has been going down steeply. In India, I can understand, where secular democratic model that the British imposed upon India is absolutely foreign to Indian history and ethos. But the US democracy has evolved in the last 200 years to a point that the US has been trying to export it even to the Muslim nations – like -Afghanistan and Iraq!
What prompted this reflection is the UN coming out and supporting this modern ‘attack’ on the US by thousands of people converging from all over the world in a caravan moving towards the US borders. It remind me of the UN coming out for the Bangladeshi Muslims who had crossed illegally into the neighboring Myanmar. When these Muslims gradually tried to take over the region, the host Buddhists stood up to them and pushed them out. However, the global Muslim power, UN and the West came behind these Muslims. Obama was very vocal during his presidency. These global forces are now pressurizing the Modi Government to accept these Muslims in India too.
Historically, India’s borders have been the most porous borders. Since 1971, the Bangladeshi Muslims have completely tilted the demographic balance against the Hindus in all the eastern states of India. It is the most silent shift in political power too. And, it has been happening with the connivance of the Congress party of India. In the US, the Democratic Party is largely supportive to these ‘refugees’ or the ‘caravaneers’. It is time for India too to cut its contributions to the UN as the US has done it.
During Obama’s first election campaign, the CHANGE was his mantra. Obama never spelled it out then that one of the ways he would change the US would be by letting the people from African countries, Middle East and South America flood into the US population. According to one estimate, close to three million people entered the US illegally during Obama’s presidency. It includes nearly one million ‘refugees’ mostly Muslims, from ‘Syria’ alone – done during his last year. The nature of politics is such that Obama’s executive order that let the refugees into the US was not ‘legal’ when the Trump’s executive order tried to stop the new influx! Politics is far from being mathematical.
A paradox of the US life is that individually, the US citizens are going to the extreme in securing the safety of their homes and loved ones. It is reflected in the geometric growth of the companies in the business of any kind of security service or product. However, the very same people take an orthogonal stand when it comes to securing their nation, which is the real home! There is no safety of the home of an individual if @ one criminal out of ten illegals is able to sneak into the US. Some US citizens have absolutely no qualms in breaking their own laws in the name of fleeting values of morality and humanity being aroused and played upon for these refugees and caravans. They have forgotten that a law of nation is for everyone, but any moral value is personal – it is never applies collectively.
I also wonder that if the US is such a heavenly place to live, then why not the US experts be invited and let them help in building those countries prosperous too. The US programs like that of Peace Corps played very constructive international roles in 1960s through 1990s in helping the underdeveloped nations. But the rise of socialist thinking in the US, as espoused by the ilk of Bernie Sanders – everything free and have open borders, has already started making the US urban centers looking as if from the third world country. A collective hatred for the US is simmering in the minds of many US citizens – s sign of another civil war.
I cannot go back in time to change the fateful decisions of India, but would do my best in not letting the US go down. This train of thoughts may form a stream of reflections in near future. Viva the United States of America!
Satish C. Bhatnagar, PhD
Professor, Department of Mathematical Sciences,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4020
Author of the following books (Available at Amazon):
2. Vectors in History: Main Foci; India and USA, Volume I
3. Epsilons and Deltas of Life: Everyday Stories, Volume I
4. My Hindu Faith & Periscope, Volume I
6. Swami Deekshanand Saraswati: My Swami Mama Ji
7. Darts on History of Mathematics,Volume I
8. Converging Matherticles: Mathematical Reflections, Volume II
9. Plums, Peaches and Pears of Education, Volume I
10. Via Bhatinda: A Braid of Reflected Memoirs, Volume II