Santosh Kumar Mohapatra
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to 50,000-strong audience comprising Indian Americans at the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Houston, Texas, has been hailed by BJP leaders as a reaffirmation of Modi’s impact on the world. Amit Shah described Modi’s “historic visit” to the US as India a “new aura on world stage”.
Also Read
But the US, which believes in spreading its imperialistic hegemony and in browbeating countries that don’t accept its suzerainty was never a genuine friend of India. The country that denied Modi a visa when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat following the Godhra massacre, has rolled out the red carpet to Modi hoping the Indian Prime Minister will open the Indian market to American companies wider.
The main reason Trump played second fiddle to Modi at the ‘Howdy Modi’ was that the US Presidential elections are scheduled for the next year. Chances of Trump winning again appear bleak right now with his approval rating down at 44 per cent and him facing impeachment; most early polls show him trailing to potential Democrat candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Trump is optimistic that Modi’s backing will go a long way in helping him win the support of the Indian-American community, numbering 4 million, who mainly support the Democrats and voted for Hillary Clinton in large numbers in the 2016 election. Further, Trump wants to use India to countervail resurgence of China in Asia.
Both Trump and Modi used Howdy Modi to masquerade their failures as successes or to showcase achievements of their respective administrations. Both eulogised each other, not out of respect but as both are on the same boat and are seeking help from each other to camouflage their failures and to divert attention of people from various problems plaguing their respective countries.
The two top world leaders have some similarities in approach. Both believe in publicity for themselves and in curbing the freedom of the media. Both are far-right leaders. Trump has far-right instincts, rather than a developed ideology, whereas Modi is the artefact of a century-old ideology and subculture (the so-called Sangh Parivar). Both don’t hesitate to twist news, data and to appeal to the emotions of people for political mileage. Modi and Trump are united in their Islamophobia, too.
The US and India are two of the most populous and powerful democracies in the world. But democracy is on decline in both countries. Under Trump and Modi, both the US and India are experiencing imbalance of power and wealth and are increasingly becoming incompatible with democracy. Democracy virtually has been converted into oligarchy. Both countries are being classified as flawed democracies.
India slipped to 42 from 32 in Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Global Democracy Index 2018 amid the “rise of conservatism” and increase in vigilantism and violence against minorities and other dissenting voices. The US was behind 19 democracies in 2017 owing to a sharp fall in popular confidence in the functioning of public institutions. The US has been classified as a “flawed democracy” for the second consecutive year and its rank dropped again to 21 in the 2018 index. America’s poor democracy rating comes amid a global regression of democratic principles.
In the World Freedom Index prepared by “Reporters Without Borders”, the position of both the US and India was declining. India was ranked abysmally at 133 among 180 countries in 2016. Its position dropped to 136 in 2017, to 138 in 2018 and 140 in 2019 index. Similarly, the US, which was ranked 41 in 2016, declined to 43 in 2017 and to 45 in 2018. It has again declined three notches to 48 in 2019 as it has become a less safe place for journalists.
Both Modi and Trump are experiencing crisis of confidence and are in panic over the failure of their economic policies to deliver the promised results. While the economy is slowing and recession fears looms large, they are clueless about ways to tackle economic slowdown. While trade war, protectionism and tax cuts have been major drags on the US economy, draconian demonetisation and hasty implementation of GST have proved a damp squib and wreaked havoc on the Indian economy and exacerbated slowdown, squeezed jobs and decimated informal economy.
In both countries, free market being taken over by crony capitalism and corporate welfare cheats are resulting in stifling, decimation of the voiceless and increasing concession to rich and corporate honchos through tax and interest rate cuts. In the US, the tax cut delivered at most a couple of quarters of higher growth. But it again slowed down. More specifically, huge tax breaks for corporations haven’t delivered the promised surge in wages and business investment; instead, corporations used the windfall to buy back stocks and pay higher dividends.
According to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, neither tax cuts nor tariffs is working in the US. Trumponomics failed to deliver much besides a trillion-dollar budget deficit. Emulating Trump, India has taken recourse to the wrong policy of corporate tax cut and interest rate cut, which will in no way benefit the masses.
It seems Indians and Americans are not too happy under Modi and Trump respectively. Under both regimes, happiness of people has declined, which is evident from various world happiness reports (WHRs). In WHR-2015, India was ranked 117. This has declined to118 in 2016, to 122 in 2017 and to 133 in 2018. India’s happiness ranking further dropped to 140 among 156 countries in 2019, way behind Pakistan, China and Bangladesh. Similarly, America was ranked at 13 in 2016; its was ranked 14 in 2017, and 18 in 2018. It further dipped to 19 in 2019.
Both in India and the US, inequality has increased to excruciatingly high. Income Inequality in the US has hit its highest level since the Census Bureau started tracking it over five decades back. Similar things are happening in India too. In India, while in 2013, one per cent of the population owned 48.7 per cent of the total wealth of the nation, in 2018, 1 per cent of the population accounted for 51.53 per cent of the nation’s wealth. The so-called growth or trickle-down economics has failed to benefit vulnerable sections of society in both countries, rather it has spawned rampant inequality. Both countries need to shift and reorient their policies from being pro-corporate or pro rich to being pro-people.
The writer is an Odisha based economist. e-Mail: skmohapatra67@gmail.com
.
