Abraham Lincoln said that the true test of a person’s character is when they have power. The truth is that in India, this (the lady in the video is saying that she and her party colleagues from the NCP will dox and physically assault an actress who wrote a poem, however tasteless, against their boss and that she is sad that there aren’t stricter laws her government could have used to ‘teach her a lesson’) is all we are, at least during my lifetime (those who lived in the Nehru era can tell me about theirs, though I have my doubts).
When we are out of power, we rush to talk of freedom of expression and democratic values. And when we are in power, we talk and behave as if might is right. Because in most cases in this nation, of late, it is.
Whether it is the BJP or the Shiv Sena, NCP or INC, CPIM or TMC, it all the same: When in power abuse the constitution and mock those that seek refuge in it; when out of power, seek refuge in it and denounce those that abuse it.
It would therefore be correct, at least from old Abe Lincoln’s perspective, to conclude that what we really lack isn’t power, but character.
