Thread by @RavikanthS_

IT AIN'T OVER TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS

In 1991, soon after the coup attempt that confined Mikhail Gorbachev to a villa in Sochi, India's MEA still very Soviet influenced, got PM PV Narasimha Rao to make a comment to the extent that Gorbachev was paying the price for

https://twitter.com/RavikanthS_/status/1325034126773153792

rushing in the "reforms" much too fast. The dominant influences in the MEA refused to consider the possibility of the USSR demising.

The circumstances in the USA are entirely different but still not dissimilar. Trump is being swept out of office

(despite Modi campaigning for him) but he is not going to go easily. According to the US Constitution and convention he should go by Jan 20. But it is quite likely he might squat in the White House for longer. Modi should lie low and India should at best issue an anodyne

statement that the tested democracy of America will do the right thing. The Trumpies in the MEA should zip their mouths and lock in their brains. As they say in America, "it ain't over till the fat lady sings!"

"The system of electing the president is complicated because it was not designed to be directly democratic. The Constitution calls for states to choose the presidential electors, who in turn gather to vote for the president. Over time, states have passed laws that

ensured their state’s popular vote for the presidency would determine the electors. But those are laws, not a constitutional obligation."