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New Delhi, Delhi, India
In 1814, the British set fire to the American democracy. Their troops burnt the Capitol, the White House, which was then called the presidential mansion and other government buildings.
More than 200 years later, US President Donald Trump entered the White House.
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In the four years that followed, he systematically shredded American democracy and tore the country apart.
Also read | As Capitol siege sends shockwaves across the world, here's a timeline of how it unfolded
There are four pillars of every democracy, the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and the press.
Trump attacked all of them and then waged a war on the election.
He called the election process fraud and demanded that the counting be stopped.
Trump also tried to delegitimise the result.
There was no way Trump was going to leave office without insulting the system too.
What Washington witnessed on January 6 was shocking, but not surprising.
Trump filed lawsuits against the election results, sent late-night champagne to official election canvassers and hosted them at Trump hotels.
He terrorised election workers with threats and even tried bullying state governors.
When all his antics flopped, Trump incited thugs into attacking the US Capitol, attempting a coup.
In October 2020, there were articles being written about how Trump may orchestrate to overthrow an elected government and three months later, he did exactly that.
Trump violated his oath of office, committed sedition and attempted a coup d'état.
He made US Capitol looked like Egypt in 2018 when the then army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi forcefully removed elected president Mohamed Morsi from office.
The scenes were similar to the ones that were seen in Sudan in 2019 when President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown.
The US Capitol looked like 2017's Zimbabwe, 2012's Mali and 2010's Niger, all our nations that are not textbook examples of democracy.
The coup d'état was happening in a country that is the world's oldest and most celebrated democracy.
The siege in US Capitol's only parallel was Wilmington insurrection in 1898 when White supremacists overthrew a multicultural government in North Carolina.
A century separates the two events, but never ever such an event happened on the orders of a sitting president.
In 1814, British forces burnt the Capitol; in 1915, the Senate Reception Room was bombed; the Capitol Room was attacked by four Puerto Rican nationalists in 1954 and there were bombings in 1971 and 1983 too.
The airlines that crashed into the World Trade Centre in September 2011 also attempted US Capitol.
About two decades later, the US president himself had the building attacked.
America's democracy was badly hurt today and what face it will show to the countries it invaded.
The breakdown of law and order in the US has raised eyebrows globally and after the mayhem ended, the democracy has been insulted.
After the US became a laughing stock among its adversaries, Trump says he will ensure a peaceful transfer of power.
The words were coming out from the mouth of a man who insulted the democracy.
The man who does not deserve to sit in the White House even for the remaining two weeks.