As an international student, going around the United States has been interesting. Whereas I am used to the noise and people of New Delhi, India, there is something very different about how things in New York work. The way people interact with you, the way things are mapped out...even the noise is different. It can be alien at times, but like everywhere you go, there is a certain charm to it.
What makes this even more interesting is the variety of opinions that exist. Not saying that India doesn't have diverse opinions, but very often, we tend to go with the majority and not side with the minority, which gets scrutinized for having a different opinion. This is not unique to India, though. It happens in every section of the society. Heck, we're still fighting over whether "Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice" was a great movie or not, despite the good extended edition now on Blu-Ray. I say this because this has a lot to do with the 2016 Presidential Election taking place right now. But before I discuss this election, I want to talk very briefly about the last election that took place in India.
In 2014, as my tumultuous 11th year in school neared its end, news agencies began reporting heavily about the Indian Elections. The winner of that election was, of course, Narendra Modi, a name that has become almost synonymous with the international community, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came into power. But that race was ugly as well. His closest competitor, a man named Rahul Gandhi, was from the opposing Congress party, who would constantly attack Modi and make snide comments about him at rallies. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Rahul Gandhi represents the Congress now, the former face of it being his mother, Sonia Gandhi. The election was full of these two men constantly attacking each other on all kinds of fronts. However, Modi's criticisms made sense. Gandhi's didn't. I still remember the day Modi won. Every news channel was going insane, with day long coverage of the win, which was no surprise. However, to this day, Rahul Gandhi continues to criticize Modi, and make sarcastic, ridiculing comments about him in sessions.
Which brings us to the 2016 Presidential Election. I do not have the right to vote in this country, but I feel like I am in a position to watch and judge what is going on and come up with my own opinions on things. I thought I had seen it all in India. Apparently not. At this moment, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are neck and neck, and the nation is torn apart. This article is not going to condemn any of the two candidates, because God forbid, there's way too much of that going on anyway. Hillary is called "Crooked," Trump is called a "Bigot"....the list goes on. In my opinion, there is really no Good/Bad here. Trump is an extreme version of Rahul Gandhi to me at this point. However, where I am going to base the rest of my viewpoint on is very simple. Who makes more sense?
Many would say "Neither of these two people should become the next POTUS," and I agree. There is nothing particularly redeeming about any one of these candidates. I side with none of these people. However, from what I can gather, the candidate that seems to make sense is Hillary Clinton. Keep in mind now that I don't side with either of them, but from their speeches, one seems to have at least some sort of a plan for what to do. Trump has aims, though not all of them are good. But where Trump seems to falter for me is that he can't seem to coherently explain what he intends on doing. He says he wants to defeat ISIS and that he has a plan, but he's not revealing that plan, because he wants to surprise the enemy. Funnily enough, that hurts his chances because people want coherence, and being in the dark about certain things does not help his case. Also, the constant name calling and racism and stuff, but that's been discussed to death by everyone. That's not what this article is about. That said, Hillary's not innocent either. There are several things wrong in her campaign too. The email scandal goes to show exactly that. Is she telling the truth at all times? The question continues to beckon as November draws nearer. She has plans and she does her best to explain them, but this true/false aspect to her has people scratching their heads. Will she do what she says? As you can probably tell, there seems to exist a variety of different opinions on this topic, and there's always going to be groups of people clashing over these things.
So how does the Indian Election from two years ago act as a somewhat parallel to this election? While that was a mess as well, there is one thing that was present there which I cannot see here. Modi was absolutely clear on every thing he proposed and talked about how he would do exactly what he promised, and he started delivering on those promises early on. He hasn't met them all so far, but there is definitely improvement. Rahul Gandhi focused so much on criticizing Modi that it hurt him in the process. In other words, that election made it clear whom to root for very early on, which is why when Modi won, there wasn't a moment where half the country recoiled in disgust or anger. There was clarity on the fact that they seem to have made the right choice with him and the BJP.
After hearing debates and seeing the Republican and Democratic conventions as well, that's where I seem to be coming back to. Who makes more sense? Who does one side with? At this point, one could say it seems to be the Democrats. But then, there's almost half the country behind the Republicans as well. I am not in support of either of these sides, and there exists no biasness. I am sure the two candidates have their reasons for going to certain extremes, but for me, a person from New Delhi, India and who cannot vote, it comes down to which of the two seems to have a clearer idea on execution. Hillary is keeping people in the dark about whether or not classified information was leaked and Trump is keeping people in the dark about policy execution. Neither side is happy, and in the end, as you can tell, I am just somewhere in the middle, confused as to how this is going to end.
