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Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 4 January 2024

Gopal Misra

 

The ruling Democrats’  bid to stem their arch rival, former President Donald Trump, to reoccupy White House, perhaps, partially succeeded, when in December 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court in a split verdict banned the most admired Opposition leader even to contest the primaries in the state.

It is natural for the democracy-loving people across the continents to be dismayed that the US establishment is just copying the tricks often used in India and Pakistan by the ruling political establishment implicating their respective political rivals. In Pakistan, the GHQ’s proxy government is known to have been manipulating judiciary to prevent the country’s most popular leader and celebrity Imran Khan, the national hero who had won the World Cup in cricket for his country and icon for the youths, is being implicated in false or trivial corruption cases. In India, the ruling BJP has adopted the much-dreaded communal card accompanied by charges of corruption against its political rivals from Chennai to Delhi.

It is often stated that the big powers, whether they directly intervene or manipulate the social political fabric of a targeted weaker country learn their inadequacies too; thus damaging their own so-called high standard of governance or social systems. America is no exception.

In India, since 1971, the deep state i.e. CIA, had been funding religious and political outfits to weaken the nationalist Congress governments in New Delhi. The rupee funds, the payments for the sub-standard wheat India had to buy for feeding her starving people facing unprecedented drought, accumulated in the American embassy in New Delhi   was also being liberally distributed to several Christian outfits camouflaging as social organizations. In India’s north-eastern region, the CIA operatives in Dacca, then capital of East Pakistan, were quietly funding and providing logistics to the separatists. They were also in touch with the Chinese agents active in the region. It has amply been detailed by MIzoram’s two times chief minister, Zoramthanga, also a former commander of Lal Denga’s separatist outfit, MIzo National Front, in his biography. 

It appears that the American establishment  comprising industrial-defence complex, intelligence agencies and partisan judges elected on party lines have use all possible tricks being used by various political outfits in India and Pakistan to prevent Trump’s march to power. He is also being tried for giving money to a porn star and series of other allegations.

With the presidential election scheduled to be held by the end of this year, a number of cases have mushroomed across America in recent months. They can be attributed to the recent surge in Trump’s popularity again seeking Republican nomination for the presidential poll, thus, the world’s most powerful American democracy is facing unprecedented political firework. With the Colorado Supreme Court disqualifying Trump even from contesting primary in the state, Democrats appear to be upbeat that it might pave the way for President Joe Biden to White House.

In a bid to prevent his arch rival from contesting the poll later this year, Biden supporters have already initiated legal procedures against Trump in various states. Trump and his supporters have challenged Biden’s legitimacy for the second term by alleging large scale financial bungling by his son, Hunter, in various deals involving companies of Ukraine and China.

The recent verdict of the Supreme Court of the U.S. State of Colorado in a 4-3 split order barring Trump from contesting even the primaries in Colorado is being considered a political vendetta by Trump supporters. The court’s order says that Trump had violated a constitutional clause enacted in 1868  relating to engaging in an “insurrection or rebellion” under the Section 3 of the country’s 14th Amendment, when he reportedly incited his supporters to enter Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021; alleging bungling in the poll and also blocking ‘peaceful transfer’ of power to Biden. The dissenting judges, however, have opined that “Trump is being punished even before a proper trial, a basic right even of a criminal defending his case. The court, however, stayed its order till January 4, 2024, enabling Trump to seek review by the US Supreme Court. Earlier, a district court had declined to block Trump from contesting on the grounds that it was unclear whether the 14th Amendment covered the presidency.

Interestingly, Vivek Ramaswamy, who is one of the Republican aspirants seeking nomination for the presidential nomination,  has asked Nicky Hailey, Christ Christie and Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida,  to boycott the Colorado primaries unless Trump is allowed to participate. DeSantis has demanded that the US Supreme Court “should reverse” the Colorado ruling, that “The Left invokes ‘democracy’ to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal ground,” he wrote on X.

Earlier, the Minnesota Supreme Court has also rejected a disqualification case filed against Trump. The lower courts in Michigan, Florida and New Hampshire have already dismissed them. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung has accused that the “all-Democrat appointed” panel in Colorado was doing the bidding of a “[George] Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden”. Biden’s supporters are apprehensive of the Supreme Court being dominated by a conservative majority, that includes three Trump appointees, might set aside the Colorado verdict. They are expected to focus on Trump’s other cases such as the trial before a US federal judge on March 4, 2024, for his election subversion conspiracy,  on March 25, Trump will be  facing charges over alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels before a New York court; and on May 20, 2024, he will be facing the charges of the alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office before a Florida court.  A fourth trial could even open in 2024: Trump is also under indictment in Georgia, over an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election he had lost to Joe Biden.

It is natural for Indians to be worried about the no-hold bar campaigns between the supporters of Biden and Trump. Since India has been promoting an all-encompassing worldview which establishes the blossoming of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious society under a democratic umbrella, the political crisis in the USA might affect her too. Like others, Indians also admire the American dream coveted worldwide.

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