https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y8SZDH3B_4

Your blog and your FB posts are places where you toot your own horn! So bear with me on this one -

Why does the US presidential election debate attract so much of attention? It seems the Hillary-Trump debate has broken all records of viewership on TV. Of course, the US is the most powerful nation on earth, and therefore, whatever happens in the US creates reverberations throughout the globe. The other reason in my view is that these US debates showcase to the world just how a democracy is supposed to work: the two contenders for the top job are confronting each other with their beliefs and vision, and in that manner helping a fiercely independent and free electorate to decide which person deserves their vote!

On a personal note, before this present one, I, as a child, saw the presidential debate for the first time in 1976 between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. The setting was a lawyer’s house in Chandigarh where the USIS had arranged a little screening for Chandigarh residents, the effort on the part of USIS being to create awareness and goodwill for the United States. In those days, India was heavily aligned with the Soviet Union, though most Indians privately admired the Americans. I don’t know on what basis they thought that showing such stuff to inconsequential people in a little sleepy town was any good.

The small audience which had gathered to see the debate in 1976 was quite enthralled: people exclaimed in Punjabi: “Eh hai democracy” (This is democracy!) Jimmy Carter was the darling of the audience, and the people said that he would win the election just because he was good looking! And that was the way it went! The audience was also mesmerised by the technology: it was the first time I saw colour TV with a video recorder and playback system in my life!