Thread by @RK36087949

It does not matter whether India matters or not...for others. Question one must ask, whether it matters to us as Indians! Do we still define our success on what others say about us?

For someone sermonizing #freedom and #Democracy, let me put simple facts and numbers out there...

https://twitter.com/ShekharGupta/status/1442014509820907521

1. USA has a two-party #Democracy, so all diverging opinions must be bucketed in one of those two parties. So much for political pluralism.

2. #JoeBiden & #KamalaHarris got elected in US more on anti-incumbency, rather than on their own merit. Had Trump tempered his rhetoric little bit, he would've been able tilt the balance.
At an individual level, #DonaldJTrump had more pull on votes than Biden-Harris combined.

3. Consider vote share they got...
Democrats 81,283,098 votes (50.9%)
Republicans 74,222,958 votes (46.5%)

Not big difference...but on votes and delegate count, Democrats and hence Biden-Harris are declared elected heads of the state.

4. #JoeBiden can be given at least some credit as he won his party's primary and was face on democrat's ticket. #KamalaHarris besides being a prosecutor, has just 4 yrs of experience in admin, that too as US senator. So, only 2 elections (incl. presidential one) under her belt.

This is #KamalaHarris 's backdrop on which she chooses to 'preach' on democracy to Modi & India.

Now, let's look at Modi & track-record of India on #Democracy ...

5. INDIA has multi-party democracy...in which even finer differences between ideology and personalities trigger new party formation. There were 7 national parties that contested election in 2019 in #India ...
BSP, BJP, CPI, CPI (M), INC, NCP, TMC

6. @BJP4India got 229,076,879 votes (54.7% among national parties; 2.8X that of Democrats). Much of this is attributed to @narendramodi alone.

7. 2nd largest national party was @INCIndia with 119,495,214 votes (28.6%). Interesting to note difference between #1 & #2 and quirky aside that on global stage RaGa-PriGaVA pair can defeat Biden-Harris 😜

8. Now, Modi's career in #Democracy :
- CM of #Gujarat for 12.5 yrs (4 elections)
- PM of #India for ~7.5 yrs (2 elections)

When difference in 'democratic' credential is so stark - why do we feel insecure with any comments on us and analyze it as a #NationalInterest topic ???

May it be #ImranKhan or #KamalaHarris - we must march on with full confidence on our 3Ds - DEMOCRACY, DEMOGRAPHY & DEMAND.

@threadreaderapp unroll please