A crow sporting peacock feathers: Vivek Ramaswamy falls to neo-convert overkill

It is possible, given Vivek Ramaswamy's ancestral origins in southern India, to imagine that he read Iowa this week as 'Ayyo'-wa! That Tamil exclamation is one of emotional distress, and that is exactly what the biotech-entrepreneur-turned presidential aspirant of the United States must have experienced when Republicans gave him no more than 8 per cent of the votes up for grabs at the party caucus in the cold agricultural midwestern state.

Not surprisingly, Vivek, whose name in Sanskrit means one endowed with discernment and wisdom, gave up his bid and simply said "Aye, Aye, sir" to Donald Trump. Standing fourth among four in a Republican runoff is not exactly flattering. Ramaswamy's discretion is understandable, but the foolhardy valour that preceded his defeat might cost him dearly.

Also watch |Donald Trump campaigns with Vivek Ramaswamy, praises him for 'good job'

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Trump even used the word 'deceitful' to describe Ramaswamy's campaign while he was even targeted within the right-wing camp for being vegetarian. For all practical purposes, his attempts to please Trump early on didn't work. As I see it, Vivek R tried sophisticated sycophancy, mixing his challenge to rivals with a Plan B to endear himself to Trump by promising a pardon to aid Trump who is facing various business and political malpractice charges linked to his controversial presidency and his role as a real estate tycoon.

From all indications, including signals from the Trump camp, Vivek has lost his chance to be the running mate for the former president on a comeback trail who led the Iowa primaries with 51 per cent votes. If the brown-skin factor is a factor, Vivek has to reckon with Nikki Haley, also of Indian origin and a woman to boot.

Indian fantasies about seeing a US presidency led by a person of Indian origin to match the UK's Tory PM Rishi Sunak will have to wait. Sunak's chances of lasting in the job appear thinner by the day as popularity polls indicate the Conservatives are not in a position to win in Britain either.

On the other side of the Atlantic pond, Ramaswamy's chances should have seemed slim even before, but the talk-is-cheap logic usually sinks in late in a media culture in which the person who is seen as the loudest or most logical or most articulate gets a leg-up through soundbites and policy wishlists. That is what made Ramaswamy look promising.

Ramaswamy, like his trans-Atlantic ideological Siamese twin, Sunak, tried to be more right-wing than the traditional white conservative Rep by targeting immigration policies — wanting to end American citizenship granted by birth to children of illegal immigrants and also supporting the militarisation of the porous southern border of the US.

Such stuff on immigration and loud no-nonsense market stuff on economics do warm the hearts of the American Right. But there's more to the American presidency than such talk. You need an earthy connection with the Average Joe/Jill in the hinterland of the sprawling federation that VR seemed to lack.

At 38, the Harvard-educated Ramaswamy is still young and can still bounce back in America's frenetic political sweepstakes. His self-funded campaign and his confidence seem like big assets, but his controversial statements include a promise to abolish the Department of Education! In other words, he stands for the diametric opposite of the welfare state and does not believe in making even minor concessions that right-wing populists are known for.

His talk about using presidential fiat to implement administrative goals and his call for Israel to destroy Hamas reek of what in India we would call the zeal of the neo-convert trying too hard to please. To borrow from a memorable Bollywood song that spoofs an Indian trying to be like an Englishman, Vivek Ramaswamy has been behaving like a crow donning peacock feathers — doomed to crash when the feathers fall off.
It seems that indeed happened in Iowa.

With age and personal wealth on his side, Vivek may yet bounce back. If Trump can do it, why can't he? But then, tomorrow is another day.

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)