For the newsrooms and edit desks of print, electronic and digital media across the world, who for the last 10 months had remained busy in churning out the maximum percentage of news, views and analyses invariably on COVID and the vaccine, the last three days of the week had been extraordinary. All COVID-related news, for at least a few hours were pushed to the sidelines as the world saw in disbelief how the US Capitol building in Washington D.C. was captured for a few hours, not by any terrorist organization, but by the supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump. The reason for this unimaginable chaos- these fanatics have not digested the hard reality that their ‘idol’ Trump has lost the presidential elections and as the last-ditch attempt to stop the US Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory, made this rampage, which has hardly any parallel in the political history of the US (it needs mentioning that the 1814 Capitol intrusion was preceded by a different historical context). Many social and political observers have been trying hard to find out the precise reason for this strange development on the soil of the world’s oldest democracy. A variety of views are coming up through the opinion columns of dailies and portals and more will follow, but one can’t help but to arrive at the conclusion that it has all been due to the culture of intolerance and bigotry, meticulously propagated and sadly ‘absorbed’ by a good portion of the American people that led to this terrible loss of face for the most powerful nation of the world. But, Trump’s rabble-rousing capabilities are truly enviable since it’s on his instigation a new ‘black history’ has been scripted which will be recalled time and again whenever there will be talks on democracy and its ethos.  
While there is hardly anything left to describe the details of the frenzy, it needs mentioning that but for the exemplary restraint shown by the Washington Police and the US Capitol security authorities, the death toll would have been well over four hundred, when actually it has been just four. In unison, all Americans have agreed that the episode has been the darkest and the most devastating moment in their democratic history since many decades and it will be a major challenge for the incoming Biden administration to put things in order. The idea of forbearance that made America proud has effaced greatly during Trump’s regime and there is a simmering tension of racism too.
However, late Saturday’s inputs suggest that Trump is going to face a dual impeachment on charges for inciting the Capitol mob. It’s a great news indeed for all those who adore democracy. But still, the episode can only be called as a festival of intolerance. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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