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American prosecution, on the other hand, is professional and diligent, and while imperfect, rarely spares any individual.
Donald Trump was not prosecuted when he was in office because he enjoyed immunity, but he was prosecuted later. Presidential pardons in the US are also done in full public glare, and open to public scrutiny and criticism, and not through manipulation behind the scenes.
So, even though the ‘most powerful man in the world’ uses his authority to grant pardons, sometimes benefiting those close to him, he is on record, compared to a system full of corruption and nepotism. Far healthier to not record the countless cases when someone pulled the strings and people were abandoned.
The ‘Indian apology’ involves a lack of accountability in our governance, a convenient way to slip through the cracks rather than a deliberate and transparent act of forgiveness with its full consequences. One lawyer says, “An apology given openly invites scrutiny; a favor obtained secretly escapes accountability.”
This is the India our politicians and bureaucrats want to have, a country that works for the few.
(Anupam Srivastava is a columnist. He is the author of The Brown Sahebs, a novel on India’s post-colonial transition. This is an opinion, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint Neither endorses nor is responsible for it.)
