By now, people from across this planet have heard about Barack Obama’s historic victory in becoming the first African-American President of the greatest democracy on earth, the United States of America. The last time a colored man captured the news headlines, media attention and brought the racial divide in the US out in the open was during the trials of O.J.Simpson (a one time popular American Football player) for the murder of his white ex-wife Nicole and her boyfriend. The results of that trial, while also being hailed by the African-American community, left the psyche of this country deeply divided along racial lines. How is it then that in a matter of a dozen odd years, a majority of white americans can bridge that divide and trust their futures in the hands of a black man, who was born in the segregation era?
If you bother to cut out all the commentary, it boils down to one and only one reason … the tremendous faith of the american people in their government to protect their rights.
So … I don’t have to tell you about the disconnect of an un-adulterated trust between the people of India and its governments. Indeed, the very fact that we have linguistic states in India is a testament to the fact that we do not expect fair treatment from the hands of a nepotistic polity. No wonder then that the States Re-organization Committee in the post-independence India acceded to the demands of the people who felt that their interests would be better served by politicians who shared their mother-tongues.
The acts of central cabinet ministers who shamelessly capture jobs for people from their home states are simply put daggers in the heart of the sacred trust that should exist between a people and its government. Why are we then so surprised if India produces Laloo’s, Mayawati’s, Mulayam’s and Thackeray’s while America produces Obama’s?
