Hillary Clinton Talks About Trump, Indian Women, Yoga, and More

By | September 22, 2017

India has a big role to play in maintaining the vitality of democracy in the years to come, Hillary Clinton said during a television interview. Clinton’s book What Happened, which talks about her loss in the American presidential election last year to Donald Trump, sold more than 3,00,000 copies in its opening week after its release on Sept. 12.

Clinton opened up about her life after losing to Trump, the U.S. immigration policy, Indian women in politics, and how she finds yoga, especially the alternate-nostril breathing, relaxing in the interview with NDTV.

Lessons Learnt

The book, Clinton said in the interview, was an attempt by her to write a history as seen through her eyes of what happened in the campaign. “Now, clearly, my opponents aren’t going to agree with what I say happened, but I think that there are lessons to be learned for democracies, not just our own,” she said. “That’s why I’m so happy talking to you because I think India has a tremendous role to play in maintaining the vitality of democracy in the next hundred years.”

Women in Politics

Drawing contrasts between the rise of women in politics in the two countries, Clinton said the parliamentary system has a big role to play in their success in India.

Pointing out that gender in the U.S. political system was not the motivator that race was in Obama’s elections, she added that she won the vote of a majority of women, but not of white women because of their party affiliation being predominantly Republican. “So it’s a very complicated situation but I would say this: you have a parliamentary system and I write in the book that I do believe it is somewhat easier for a woman to rise in a parliamentary system,” she said, citing examples of Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel who became heads of government after coming out of a parliamentary system.

“Our system, you have one person as head of state, head of government and you don’t have the strong party basis that helps to select candidates to run for constituencies across the country. So you really start from the very bottom, no matter who you are, no matter what your record has been. You start and you have to raise all the money yourself, you have to run the gauntlet of a very tough political system.”

Clinton also lashed out against Ivanka Trump’s visit to India as the representative of the United States. “Neither I nor my husband would have ever thought about bypassing officials with deep experience for our child,” she said, talking about how Donald Trump relies on a small circle of people who do not have the experience of professionals.

Stand Against Pakistan

Clinton reiterated her position of taking a stand against terrorism stemming out of Pakistan, adding that the Trump administration is not doing enough over the issue.

“Certainly, at this point, they haven’t really done anything except say some things and makeup policy to send more American troops to Afghanistan with no strategy,” she said. “So I think that we were very clear when I was Secretary of State, as you well remember, speaking out against Pakistan, going in and killing Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan, making it clear that there were too many safe havens for terrorists across the border. I mean I had many stand-offs with the Pakistani government over their behavior.”