My yoga master, Sunilji, is perhaps the opposite of US President Donald Trump. Sunilji is from the eastern Uttar Pradesh district of Ghazipur that borders on Bihar; his village is a few kilometres away from the town. This area’s economic condition and quality of life are comparable to either rural Nepal or sub-Saharan Africa; it is among those parts that pulls the rest of India down with its demographic pressure. He speaks only Hindi.
Trump is far from poor and speaks only “American”. He was born to a real estate developer in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population, New York. When I was a high schooler in the late 1970s, Trump was coming into his own and had just built Trump Tower, with its hideous salmon pink and gold atrium. My friends and I went for a glimpse when it opened. Like most other New Yorkers, we had a simultaneous revulsion and fascination for this “short-fingered vulgarian”, as Spy magazine (a 1980s-90s monthly) called him (in each issue). If you had told any of us at the time that Trump would one day be President and rule the world, we would have laughed long and loud.
Well, now Trump is President for a second time, and we are all watching with bated breath to see who lasts longer: him, or humans.
One of those humans is Sunilji, an almost 40-year-old soft-spoken gentleman who leads a simple life. He and his family of five live on the outskirts of urban Gurgaon, he has a motorcycle, and he is always struggling for money. There is always a medical emergency that occasionally leads to a relative’s death. Every couple of months, he takes his family by a crowded train to the village for a wedding in the extended clan. It is like most ordinary Indians’ lives.
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Sunilji has a simple and clear way of seeing things, rooted in his village life. He never speaks in anger or with abuse, and when he talks, I marvel at his earthy wisdom. Thus, I asked him what he thought of Trump.
“Very strange man,” he said at first. “I just don’t understand how he has gone crazy. Better than him was Biden.” Then he looked at me. “He is a c******,” he said, shocking me off my yoga mat.
Sunilji was unhappy with Trump’s seeming recklessness. He spoke about war, particularly what was going on in Iran, and feared more wars that would hurt us, but mostly poor people like him, economically.
“He is like the fellow in our village,” Sunilji said. “If you don’t go do salaam to him, he will manipulate you and another villager to fight one another. And then you will go to him, palms joined, and he will say, oh case ho gaya (there’s a case)? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”
Might of Trump
This makes sense. Trump is a bully who has dragged the world into a “might is right” era, where there is no dialogue, no multilateral institutions, no rule of law; all that exists is that you listen to me and surrender, or else. The Russians are doing it in Ukraine; the Israelis did it in Gaza and are now America’s proxy in Iran; and presumably other countries with the wherewithal are gearing up for possible future wars. Incidentally, Trump’s obsession with Iran dates to the 1979-80 Islamic revolution, when 52 US embassy personnel were taken hostage and Iran was the top TV news every night. He is a man whose worldview was set decades ago; perhaps that explains his continuing antipathy to Iran.
What does this mean for India? Trump called Pakistan’s army chief for lunch and invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who declined. He obviously didn’t want to be blindsided by the credit-hogging cease-fire specialist Trump (who may also be soliciting Pakistan’s help with Iran). Trump, having left the G-7 meeting in Canada early, must have disappointed Modi, who never likes to miss a photo-op.
“This is Trump’s last time in office? Sunilji asked. “Their Presidents don’t have third terms, right?”
Many ask themselves this, even though Trump has not even completed six months of his four-year term. Some are convinced that Trump’s body will not finish the current marathon, given the amount of the weight-loss drug Ozempic he appears to be consuming. His opponents insist he is already senile, though in his impromptu press conference on the way back from the G-7, he looked fine to me.
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In fact, he seemed to carefully measure his words. Trump controls the situation (we control the skies over Iran, he bragged, deliberately forgetting that his country was playing a behind-the-scenes role). But he has also said that though he wanted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to surrender, he said: “We are not going to take him out”. Clearly, his caution means that he is not keen to get involved in a war in Iran.
As for his longevity, he openly speaks of a third term, and even if it is not constitutionally allowed, what is to stop a man who’s already shown so much disdain for institutions, rules, tradition and precedent?
“He had got his people to attack and riot in their parliament,” Sunilji reminded me. Clearly, January 6, 2021, was the day Trump crossed the line into full authoritarianism. It seems he spent his four years out of power plotting his agenda when he returned.
Trump’s desire for eternal power provoked millions across America last weekend to participate in the “No Kings” protests, which contrasted starkly with the pathetic military parade he organised on his own birthday. The parade was pathetic, which is not to say the US military cannot organise marches or parades. In Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Lieutenant Scheisskopf (German for “shithead”) is so consumed with day-and-night parade drills that he is oblivious to his wife sleeping with cadets, OnlyFans-style. You underestimate the US military at your own risk.
“This man will finish the world as he goes,” Sunilji said as he went off. It is a worrisome prospect that used to sound like paranoia, but not anymore.
Aditya Sinha is a writer living on the outskirts of Delhi.
Source:https://frontline.thehindu.com/columns/trump-middle-east-policy-iran-israel-conflict/article69708816.ece