Duriing the run-up to the US presidential
election scheduled later this year, Donald Trump has astounded the world with his
unconcealed hatred towards Muslims, Latino, Chicano, and other immigrants in
the USA, American Democrats, and also the Third World (read the poor of the
world) in general. Such filthy, always-unsubstantiated verbal aggression against
anyone who is not perceived to be on his side is shocking even by the standards
of the US Republicans. In the New York Times, Charles M Blow writes on 2 June
2016:
“Donald Trump, a man who tosses the truth around with the callous disdain of a spoiled child with a toy he has outgrown, has spent much of his campaign calling the media dishonest ….
“He seems to view any unflattering, or otherwise critical, coverage as an attack. His rhetoric suggests that in his mind, adulation is the only honesty.
“But there is a strand of these comments and behavior that heralds something more dangerous than an ideological animosity toward the press. Trump keeps signaling that if he had his [way], he would silence dissent altogether.”
As I was reading the article, I couldn’t but think back to the
just concluded elections in West Bengal. The similarities are chilling!
Replace Donald Trump with Mamata Banerjee, he with she, his with
her, and the text above fits in perfectly with the WB elections in April / May
2016. Particularly, the expression “adulation is the only honesty” seems to
have been written with Ms MB in mind.
Donald Trump will most probably lose the elections, although his
opponent, Hillary Clinton, is carrying her own baggage. However, Mamata
Banerjee has won a thumping victory. Let’s see where she takes West Bengal in
the next five years.
And please pray, if you are a believer.
Bengaluru / 3 June 2016
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