Blood is thicker than water. That may be a reason why US President Joe Biden chose to issue a full and unconditional pardon for his son Hunter Biden. But, as someone on his own side of the political divide said, “Hypocrisy is not illegal, nor is it unusual in politics.”
Why there is so much flak about one of Mr Biden’s last acts as a one-term President is not for the nepotism — Bill Clinton forgave his half-brother for dealing in drugs and Donald Trump forgave his son’s father-in-law for illegal campaign contributions — but because Mr Biden had maintained for so long that he would not do it.
Mr Biden’s Democratic Party had made his pledge not to pardon his son sound as if it was the highest principle ever to be upheld to demonstrate to the world that America is working as a nation and that its justice system is an epitome of integrity and fairness.
US Presidents have used the right to pardon thousands of times, from forgiving aides to marijuana possessors to draft dodgers, rescuing just about anyone who agreed with their political point of view. So why should this one trigger so much soul searching when even Richard Nixon was pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford?
An empathetic point of view would have considered Mr Biden’s plight as an ageing 82-year-old lame duck President who had lost everything including his candidature for a second term, who had seen his party lose to the Republican Donald Trump and who may not have wished to see his once drug-addled son go to jail even for a day, for 12 felonies, including lying in court.
The incoming President Donald Trump’s threat to wield the legal axe against all his enemies because he perceives himself as the most tortured victim in being hounded by the justice department and the courts for years may have tipped the scales.
We can draw solace from the fact that the Indian Constitution did not vest a political personality like a Prime Minister with discretionary and a traditionally royal prerogative of granting any citizen a full pardon. It’s best if politicians are not allowed this privilege.
