A blockbuster political-legal drama is unfolding in the United States of America, and it will likely run until at least November 2024. The federal indictment of Donald Trump last week has added to the former US president’s legal troubles while raising the temperature of the politics leading up to the country's next presidential election. Mr Trump was indicted on charges of illegally hoarding secret, classified documents from his time as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The documents include details of the US nuclear programme, a plan to potentially attack Iran, and other highly sensitive memos that the prosecutor alleges Mr Trump should have left behind at the White House while demitting office in January 2021. Mr Trump, predictably, has denied any wrongdoing and has insisted that he is the victim of a witch-hunt aimed at derailing his campaign for re-election as president. Most Republican leaders, including those who are contesting against Mr Trump for the presidential nomination, have, unsurprisingly, criticised the indictment as evidence of the alleged politicisation of the justice system in the US by the administration of President Joe Biden.

Therein lies the conundrum for democracies when it comes to addressing alleged wrongdoing by former elected leaders. On the one hand, prosecuting alleged crimes like the ones Mr Trump is accused of shows that no one, not even those who held the highest office in the land, are immune from the law. On the other hand, in a deeply polarised political climate like that of the US — or, indeed, India's — such moves are bound to be seen by large sections of the population as the weaponisation of the law enforcement system to target political opponents. That risks further amplifying distrust in the judicial system as a non-partisan check on excesses by the executive and legislature. Governments, whether in the US or India, irrespective of their politics, must carefully strike a balance between correctly sending the message that no one is above the law and creating the perception that political rivals will be targeted selectively. Mr Trump, who could be slapped with more indictments in a range of other cases, can nevertheless continue to contest for the presidency. But fighting these legal battles could suck the resources and time his campaign needs. How the next few months in the US play out will offer a test of politics, the law and democracy itself. The world will be watching.