This is a tale of two countries; and their legislatures. In both, elected members were disqualified although by procedures which were not identical. One tale has a happy ending. In the second tale, the wound inflicted by depriving the people of their elected representative continues to fester, and will probably smoulder for some time with unpredictable consequences. In both cases, the spirit of democracy is at stake. The people’s will needs protection, and their representation needs safeguards.
The tale of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as a member of the Lok Sabha from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency is well known across India, and in many quarters in the world because the Gandhi surname makes him more than just another MP. So, the episode needs no elaboration. Rahul’s Parliament membership was terminated through due process, in accordance with the laws as they are in the statute books today. It is a developing story, and several chapters will be written before it finally ends.
Two weeks after the ongoing Gandhi saga, in Tennessee, in the United States, three members of its House of Representatives were picked for expulsion from the House in what was quickly recognised across the US as a blatant act of partisanship and racism. The House, the lower chamber of the state assembly, has a brute Republican majority. Its three Democratic Party members too were chosen to be deprived of their legislative seats under the due process of law, but not in the true spirit of people’s representation.
Of the three, two African-American legislators promptly lost their House membership. The third narrowly survived the punitive action ostensibly because she was white. That is Tennessee. American humourist Mark Twain famously said: ‘When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it is always 20 years behind the times.’ This quote is often paraphrased in colloquial settings that Twain’s observation applies equally to Tennessee. In truth, it could be validated in many parts of the US South.
On March 27, in a quiet suburban school in Tennessee’s capital of Nashville, also known as ‘Music City’ because of its famous symphony, opera ballet, and country music, there was a mass killing in which children and teachers fell victim to a deranged gunman. Because Tennessee is ranked 12th among US states with the most lax gun control laws, a large number of protestors marched from the ill-starred school to the state Capitol where the legislature was in session.
The three Democratic House members joined the protestors who invaded the Capitol demanding tighter gun control. The House Speaker accused the trio of leading the protestors into the chamber and stalling its session. They flaunted signs on the House floor which read: ‘Protect kids, not guns’. The incident escalated nationwide, in part, because a white legislator survived the expulsion while two African-American Democrats lost their House membership. Most US state legislatures are empowered to expel members, but by convention, only as punishment for grave misconduct.
US President Joe Biden waded into the controversy and said the expelled legislators had done nothing more that joining thousands of protestors seeking safety from loose gun laws.
As opposition to the expulsions raged, both the African-American legislators were unanimously reinstated by their constituents — they were elected from local bodies — as House members. On the other hand, a white Republican House member, who played a big part in the expulsions, was forced to resign after his sexual misconduct came to light.
As the US approaches another contentious, potentially violent national elections next year, the story from Nashville promises to be a turning point. Although nation-wide direct action against police brutality and racially-motivated violence, which rocked the US before the last presidential election, have subsided, raw emotions on such volatile issues are just below the surface. Tennessee has shown that US minorities can no longer be disenfranchised and dispossessed; and that opposition voices cannot be silenced in the name of the rule of law.
In 2020, Biden benefited from such a resurgence and won two long-time Republican, redneck states — Georgia and Arizona. Aspirational Americans could well target Tennessee — and South Carolina, where a near-total abortion ban just failed for the third time — in the next presidential election. The power to quickly mobilise — as in Nashville — is what entrenched forces will have to contend with as racial issues once again move to the front and centre of popular movements in the US.
In Tennessee, it had a happy ending with country-wide ramifications. So far.
(KP Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years.)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
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