From Trump's setback to Serbia's Parliament of PhDs

Lots of things have been happening on the political front in India, the US and many other countries.

DONALD TRUMPED

The midterm elections in the US generally don't get much attention in other parts of the world. But this time was an exception. The elections were being viewed almost like a presidential election. 

Donald Trump wanted it that way, as he pleaded with people to imagine that he was on the ballot. But the voters didn't give Trump what he desperately wanted.

It is nothing new for the party to which the President belongs to lose the midterms. Two years after Barack Obama was swept to power in 2008, in the 2010 midterms, Democrats lost majority in the House of Representatives. 

But here again, this time was an exception. The news was not so much the Republicans' defeat as the wide margin by which they lost to the Democrats. The news was bigger because of the way Trump ran the presidency.

I was quite surprised that Trump did not immediately claim that the polls were massively rigged. Instead, he acknowledged the electoral setback, while blaming the Democrats and other factors. 

I was also surprised to see him attribute the defeat, at least partly, to the war in Iran. That was very un-Trump-like.

TRUMP WANTS GYANESH!

The midterms triggered a meme-fest in India, mostly featuring India's Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. 

One of the memes doing the rounds showed Trump entering Narendra Modi's room and telling the Indian Prime Minister, "Bro, give us Gyanesh". Another said, "Gyanesh Kumar would've never let this happen to Trump."

For readers who aren't familiar with who Gyanesh is, here is a little background.

India's Chief Election Commissioner is currently the focus of an intense Opposition offensive for what they say, "grossly mismanaging" the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

SIR is not new. Basically, it's about cleaning up or updating the electoral rolls.

But this time around, the exercise was carried out in a very complicated manner, making it extremely difficult for many genuine Indian citizens to establish their eligibility as voters.

I went through the process myself, and I can say that the whole exercise was needlessly complicated. People had to produce several documents, some dating back many decades, to establish their connection with earlier electoral rolls. In many cases, they had to establish a link with the names of their parents or grandparents in the 2002 electoral rolls.

The exercise has resulted in a massive reduction in the number of names on electoral rolls. Opposition leaders say around 13 crore (130 million) names have been removed across the country. But the Election Commission's figures show a reduction of 7.04 crore names across 24 States and Union Territories where the final rolls had been published by October 28. These figures relate to different stages and coverage of the exercise.

In Bengaluru, the south Indian city where I reside, the number of voters in the updated roll has dropped from 1.03 crore (10.3 million) to 59.6 lakh (5.96 million).

One point to note here: Not all those whose names were removed were necessarily eligible voters. However, the Opposition alleges that a large number of genuine voters have also been disenfranchised, some selectively, belonging to a certain religion.

Gyanesh Kumar is accused, first, of unilaterally changing the rules governing the SIR in a manner that selectively disenfranchised voters and, second, of working in a way that facilitated the victory of the ruling BJP. None of these allegations has been established. Legal challenges to the exercise are also before the courts.

This is the context of the meme, which effectively showed Trump asking Modi to allow Gyanesh to conduct elections in the US!

To be fair, after media expose of "mismanagement" in the Election Commission and subsequent Opposition offensive, a number of contentious processes in the SIR have been changed or simplified. The commission is now proactively trying to enrol genuine voters whose names have been missed out.

NETANYAHU AND THE IRAN WAR

In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has joined the list of world leaders who have failed to turn wars they launched into emphatic electoral victories in subsequent elections.

The Iran war, which Israel launched jointly with the US on February 28, has, it turns out, wreaked electoral havoc in both Israel and the US.

In the October 27 parliamentary elections, Netanyahu's Likud-led coalition secured only 53 seats in the 120-member Knesset, falling short of the 61 needed for a majority. The opposition bloc secured 48 seats, while Arab-led parties won the remaining 19.

With neither bloc securing a majority, the political situation remains uncertain. President Isaac Herzog will consult political parties before deciding whom to invite to form the next government. There is speculation that Netanyahu may not be able to return to power.

A HISTORIC ELECTION IN BRAZIL

What happened in Brazil on October 25 was also quite dramatic. The incumbent left-leaning President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was re-elected in the second round of voting.

It was historic because, for the first time in Brazil's presidential election history, the winner of the first round, conservative Flávio Bolsonaro, lost in the runoff.

Flávio had secured 47.03% of the votes in the first round, against Lula's 45.16%. But Lula turned the tables in the runoff, winning 51.79% of the votes against Bolsonaro's 48.21%.

STUDENTS' MOVEMENT TRIUMPHS IN SERBIA

Celebration after Aleksandar Vucic's
right-wing Serbian Progressive Party lost. - AP photo.

Yet another, perhaps the most interesting and path-breaking election in October was held on the 25th in Serbia. It saw the culmination of a two-year student movement's street protests in an electoral victory. The movement, called "Student List – Students Are Winning", defeated the ruling Serbian Progressive Party led by strongman Aleksandar Vučić, which had been part of the ruling coalition since 2012.

The most interesting part is that none of the candidates fielded by the student-led movement were students themselves. Instead, they fielded professionals from various walks of life. 

Of the 250 candidates on the list, more than 160 reportedly held doctorates. The list included prominent researchers, academics, doctors, economists, organic chemists, sociologists, political scientists, lawyers, journalists, teachers and farmers.

The student-led list won 140 seats in the 250-member National Assembly, while Vučić's party secured 103. The remaining seats went to minority parties. 

Since the student-led movement won 140 seats, at least 50 of the newly elected lawmakers must be PhD holders. The actual number could be considerably higher.

The Serbian National Assembly could well turn out to be one of the most academically accomplished parliaments in the world. While the main focus of the student-led group's campaign was to rid society of corruption, the group also wanted to usher in meritocracy and academic autonomy.

The results were formally declared on November 5. The new Parliament is expected to meet within 30 days, after which the government will be formed.  It will be really interesting to track the progress of the new government in Serbia.

Two cases of capital punishment

Two high-profile death row cases in the United States hit the headlines recently: those of Christa Pike and Nidal Hasan. Both, for different reasons, sparked a debate over how justice is administered.

THE CHRISTA PIKE CASE

Colleen Slemmer

On 12 January 1995, 18-year-old Christa Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and their 18-year-old friend Shadolla Peterson — all students at the same school in Knoxville, Tennessee — lured 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer to a desolate, wooded area and murdered her in a gruesome manner, over a conflict that stemmed from jealousy.

The nature of the crime was horrendous, making it one of the most sensational teenage crimes anywhere in the world.

Christa Pike

Christa Pike and Tadaryl Shipp pleaded guilty. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996. Since Shipp was a minor, he escaped the death penalty, as the law does not allow capital punishment for minors. Now around 50 years old, he remains in prison after one mercy plea was rejected. He gets another chance for clemency in 2031.

The third person involved, Shadolla Peterson, did not actively take part in the murder; she had kept watch on the perimeter. During the course of the investigation, she decided to cooperate with the police and disclosed exactly how the crime occurred. In return, she received a one-year jail term and six years of probation. Nothing is now known about her whereabouts.

WHY PIKE'S CASE IS UNIQUE

Christa Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. On September 30, she was set to be the first woman executed in the state in over 200 years.

On the day of the execution, she was administered two full doses of the sedative pentobarbital. But for reasons that are under investigation, she not only survived, but remained fully conscious and complained of uneasiness.

After it was established that the lethal injection had failed, she was rushed to a nearby hospital. In a strange twist of fate, the very same authorities who were trying to execute her were making every effort to keep her alive.

This is not the first time a planned execution has failed. There have been instances, especially in the US, when procedures involving electric chairs, gas chambers, and firing squads have failed due to equipment malfunction, improper drug mixtures, or missed target areas.

However, this is the first time — certainly in the US, and possibly in the world — that a death-row convict has survived after being administered a full dose of a lethal injection.

THE NIDAL HASAN CASE

Nidal Hasan

Nidal Hasan is a former US Army Major and psychiatrist. On 5 November 2009, he opened fire in a medical building at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, killing 13 people, including a pregnant soldier and her unborn child, and injuring 32 others. Law enforcement personnel shot and wounded him, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. A military court convicted and sentenced him to death in 2013.

He is scheduled to be executed on 3 December this year, marking the US military’s first execution by firing squad since World War II. But this case has hit the headlines for a totally different reason. On the 9th of this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be publicly broadcast and livestreamed.

This naturally set off a major public outcry from politicians of major parties and human rights organisations, who argued that it would fuel terrorism rather than curb it. An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll showed that 80% of Americans opposed livestreaming the execution.

President Trump did not directly comment on it. However, during an event, he remarked that back in the 1900s "we had really strong laws", whereas now "you can do almost anything; nothing happens. But we're changing that." Following the massive backlash, Trump cancelled the broadcast plan.

A LIFE WORSE THAN DEATH?

I was thinking about the life Christa Pike has lived so far.

She had an extremely traumatic childhood involving physical and sexual violence. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD. That is definitely no justification for the murder she committed at the age of 18. 

About a year later, she became one of the youngest people in the US to be sentenced to death. In 2001, while in prison, she tried to kill a fellow inmate by strangling her with a shoestring.

She has spent the remaining 30 odd years of her life, much of it in solitary confinement, awaiting the day her life would be taken. Yet she seems destined to live. Seen from another angle, she has probably lived a life worse than death — and that life does not seem to end.

DEATH AS PUNISHMENT: OKAY OR NOT?

Capital punishment has always been a much-debated issue, with strong arguments on both sides.

Proponents argue that it acts as a powerful deterrent, provides proportional retribution, and offers a sense of justice and emotional comfort to the victims' families and friends.

Opponents contend that the state itself becomes a killer. Secondly, the punishment is irreversible — if a legal flaw in the conviction is discovered later and the convict is proved innocent, there is no way to reverse the punishment and exonerate them. Thirdly, they argue that the right way to deal with a criminal is reform, not retribution.

Be that as it may, globally, the number of executions has come down, and public opinion has been shifting against capital punishment.

MY VIEW

I don't agree with a total ban on capital punishment. But, it must be awarded only in the rarest of rare cases: where the crime is extremely gruesome, where there is not the slightest doubt as to who the perpetrator is, and where the guilt and criminal intent have been proved beyond even the shadow of a doubt.

The next best alternative to capital punishment is: imprisonment for the rest of the life.

I would not disagree with the sentence in either of the above two cases, considering the way both the crimes were planned and executed. However, livestreaming an execution for the whole world to see is an abhorrent idea.

YOUR VIEW

Do you think capital punishment acts as a deterrent, or should it be abolished or reserved only for the rarest of rare cases?

Tell me what you think in the comment below.

Not a tragedy, but averting one, became the bigger news

In journalism, we say, when something goes wrong, it becomes news. The bigger the misfortune (if it can be quantified in some manner), the bigger the news.

One of my editors used to say, if there is an accident, don't just go by the number of people who died, look at also the number of people who were saved or who escaped death.

Image source: Wikimedia

This is what came to my mind when I was following reports about the dramatic and extraordinary scenes inside the cockpit of the Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, carrying over 150 passengers, mainly Israelis.

Fortunately, nothing happened. There was no hijack. The plane didn't crash. It landed safely. There was no loss of lives. Two people suffered injuries.

It was such big news; not because of any misfortune or an accident. On the contrary, it was a providential escape from a massive tragedy. An escape from a calamity that would have befallen not just the 150-odd passengers and crew of the plane but an entire region as well.

What happened on board the flight was something unprecedented. One pilot stabbed another pilot while the plane was cruising at an altitude of over 34,000 ft. Israeli PM Netanyahu said it was an attempt to crash the plane.

The pilot, who resisted the attack of the co-pilot and got stabbed, was an Indian, Smit Machchhar, who worked for an Indian airline, SpiceJet, for 11 years before joining the Dubai airline. We would know more about what happened once he recovers and gives his testimony to the investigators.

The world first got to know about this when the plane signalled the emergency code, squawk 7700, and later squawk 7500, which means hijacking.

On hearing the screams and chaos inside the cockpit, passengers and crew broke in and overpowered the attacker. Two of the passengers were pilots, or at least they knew the controls of an airplane. They took charge. 

By then, the plane had dropped from 34,000 feet to around 16,600 feet in just over two minutes. The two manually guided the plane to land safely at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.

It was such immense luck that there were two pilots among the passengers who could take control of the plane and land it safely. I dread to think what would have happened if that wasn't the case.

If the plane had crashed, it's anybody's guess how Israel would have reacted. The already unstable and volatile region would have just descended further into unthinkable turmoil.