Why US' political developments must caution India
Many political scientists argue that the incidents that occurred in Washington DC on January 7, 2021, was a blot on the world’s most powerful democracy, the United States of America. Being a democratic country but at the same time, joining hands either overtly or covertly with the world’s most dictatorial states and trying to wield power over other developing and democratic countries, the US had to witness an incident such as this someday or the other. This is an extension of its interference with other sovereign countries in the garb of democracy.
Under the Presidency of Trump, the country has turned against itself in the worst manner possible. America’s relation with democracy weakened the day it elected a racist who has utter disregard and contempt for democracy and the dignity of the common man. The racism perpetrated by the administration during Trump’s Presidency exposed America’s democratic mask long ago. The farcical end to Trump’s administration through this incident reflects his personality and America’s present situation. We can’t blame only Trump for these developments. The rightist forces that are now regulating America are responsible for bringing the country’s democracy to the present state of disrepute. At the same time, we can’t expect things to become normal the moment Trump exits.
In fact, going by the manner in which Donald Trump, a white racist, governed and administered the country in the most dangerous and worst manner, there was no way that the occasion of President-elect Joe Biden’s swearing-in could have been different. The model of violence that Trump chose before exiting office is similar to Germany’s dictator Adolf Hitler’s suicide. Unable to witness his most anticipated dream of a 1000-year Nazi rule being shattered, Hitler had resorted to suicide along with other fascist criminals in Berlin’s underground bunker. Trump has shown similar behavior. With this incident, Trump hasn’t lost anything. But America might find itself in an awkward situation to pride itself as the ‘most powerful democratic country’ in the coming days.
America’s embarrassment is about how a President without the support of his party leaders could whip up the support of racists, terrorists, and goonda elements to overturn election results. It won’t be a surprise if this small failed revolution leads to a big revolution in the future.
The incidents that occurred on January 7 should be seen as acts of treason aimed at overthrowing democratic rule in America. If these actions were planned and implemented by members of the black community and not white supremacists, hundreds of people would have lost their lives. The way America is squeezing its hands over taking stringent action against Trump and his followers reveals the depth of the divisiveness in America. This also proves how the evils of racism, gender discrimination, and corporate structure control America. As long as the American government fails to take action against Trump and his followers, it cannot be accepted that democracy has been reinstalled completely in America. Today, due to his bad administration, Trump has grown to become an international criminal. Many countries have issued international arrest warrants against him. The world is watching with curiosity about how America will punish Trump for conspiring against his own country, forget conspiring against other countries.
Ironically, India should also indirectly own up the stigma of America’s attack on the Congress as it now finds itself in an awkward situation with the presence of an Indian flag during the attack. It is not difficult to trace the background of this. Having established itself as a third powerful force internationally by adopting a non-aligned stand in external affairs, India now finds itself compromising its foreign policy to woo America. The manner in which India woos America reached a pathetic state during the Narendra Modi regime. It went to the extent of interfering in America’s elections with the Indian Prime Minister campaigning in favor of Trump. With this, India identified itself as a worker of a political party in the US. ‘Ab ki Baar, Trump Sarkaar,’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared on American soil. Modi did not show the wisdom of imagining a situation in the eventuality of Trump’s losing the elections and how it could have an adverse impact on India. Today, if the Indian flag is seen during the attack on the US Congress, it is because of Narendra Modi’s declaration of ‘Ab ki Baar, Trump Sarkaar.’ Even though Narendra Modi expressed his regret over the developments in America, India lost its moral authority to condemn the incident due to Modi’s behavior.
At this moment, we should not forget that India has a government that had looked upon Trump as a model. An Indian Prime Minister who is a puppet in the hands of organizations that are more divisive and casteist than Trump is ruling the country. Instead of believing that the country is more important than an individual, the number of people who believe that an individual is more important than the country is growing. Bhakths who believe that the Prime Minister cannot be criticized even though the country is being ruined would definitely turn out to be more dangerous to India than Trump’s supporters to the US. America’s developments should come as a timely warning to India.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
