Left, right, centre, reverse: Populism emerges as unifying political idea

In the new world, the only idea that cuts across enough vote banks is populism. Its beauty, charm and success lie in its ease of use and how little it demands from the head or heart

Well into 2025 now, we examine which “ism” has lost out and which one is winning. If you look at the Western world, leftism is mostly finished for now — not just politically but also the social left. Britain is an exception, though, given the challenge Keir Starmer faces and the attacks from Elon Musk-supported hard right, the Labour also looks like an endangered species.

 

The right, at the same time, isn’t in great shape either. At least, the political right that we’ve been familiar with. In the US, the Republicans have succumbed to a Trumpian insurgency. If one tracks Trump’s utterances lately, most of the people he targets are Republicans: “Birdbrain” Nikki Hailey, “Dumb as a Rock” John Bolton, “disloyal warmonger” Dick Cheney and his “psycho” daughter Liz, Charles Koch’s “Americans for no Prosperity”, Mitt Romney, his former Cabinet officers such as Jim Mattis, Mark Esper (he spells Yesper), and so on — all of whom he accuses of suffering from TDS, or Trump Derangement Syndrome.

 

You don’t see him throwing such abuse at the old left. That’s because in this insurgent view, the old right is even more immoral than the Democrats. Trump’s MAGA Republicans are as ideologically distant from the traditional GOP as from the Democratic left.

 

Ruchir Sharma, in his latest Financial Times column, underlines that 85 per cent of the incumbents last year lost elections in developed countries that went to the polls. In all of these, I would add, the new ideology that emerged wasn’t any of the old “isms” as we know them. This is true of France and Italy as well. Odds are, the same new reality will play out in Germany too. As the left faces massive rejection, the right has been redefined and the idea of the centre-right is in deep distress.

 

If all “isms” taught to us till now — leftism, rightism and centrism — are dying or going into deep coma, what is winning? What is replacing them? This brings to mind a popular Sona Mohapatra song from some years back: “Ik naye kisam ka ism” (a new kind of ism). Of course, lyricist Ram Sampath’s words tugged at our heartstrings to junk all bad divisive “isms” and discover a new one that will unite our “jisms” (beings).

 

That’s too romantic for politics. At the same time, there cannot be a vacuum of ideas in democracies. Fact is, if Mohapatra sang for a new kind of “ism”, one has indeed risen now. It is called populism. Across the world, the left, right and the centre are being devastated by populism. Of course, it is customised for different nations, electorates, and societies. In the developed world, it includes mass deportations of immigrants, fear of alien cultures and faiths (mostly Islam) that do not assimilate, hyper-nationalism, trade-protectionism and just that search for that pinnacle of glory in your history or mythology. Trump, Giorgia Meloni, Viktor Orban and Marine Le Pen are among the most successful populists. It would be an error to call them right-wing. Nigel Farage’s UK Reform Party is hoping to get there too. Who fears it the most? It isn’t the Labour. They have a comfortable majority. The biggest threat is faced by the British conservatives. Could UK Reform do to them what Trump has done to the Republican Party in the US? That’s the case Elon Musk is on. The beauty, charm and success of populism lie in its ease of use, in how little it demands from your head or heart, wisdom or conscience. It is unencumbered by morality, carries no weight of history and isn’t confused by facts.

 

At one level, it can be purely transactional, and we are seeing it play out in India. “I will give you, or your sister or mother, so much cash, and you vote for me”. Or, “you can travel free in the buses”, now somebody says in the Metro, “so many units of free power”, “free water”,  and so on. A little over a year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was ridiculing this as “rewris”, which distracted from the primary responsibility of elected leaders: Governance. He was so correct and wise to take that position. He got off that kerb, however, sooner than you could utter the word Karnataka.

 

There’s been a relentless rollback since then. If anything, the BJP is now leading the rest in promising more and more giveaways. They tasted success in Maharashtra. In Delhi now, they are offering women voters even more than the Aam Aadmi Party. This has gone to the extent that the BJP, India’s most successful party and one with the best-defined ideology among the major contenders, is now counting more on what it can give away than even Hindutva or Hindutva-based nationalism.

 

We told you populism is unencumbered by old ideologies. Check out how forces of the left or centre-left, the Congress most prominently, started transactional politics. An ideology-free party like the AAP probably showed the way. Now, the BJP is on the same bandwagon. The old “isms” divided them, but now they are all united by populism. The burden for this is not on Rahul Gandhi, but the “Mohabbat ki dukaan” (a mart of love) he promised us has now become a giant bazaar or rewris.

 

Broad-spectrum populism is also anchored in emotional factors: Religion, nationalism, culture, nostalgia, a belief that at some point in the past, we were greater than we’ve been lately. There is no definition of that “lately.” That’s why people will vote to Make America Great Again. Hasn’t it been great since the Cold War was won? Or the reason people will buy into the idea of making India “sone ki chidiya” (the golden sparrow) again. It’s the same thing. Populism promises what you’ve never seen before but which, once you imagine, makes you feel good. These are then distilled further in sharply defined issues: Immigration, irredentism, gender and race. Or let’s drop euphemisms, notions of racial purity.

 

Immigration is a huge issue in the developed world. In India, that’s the button CAA is pushing, and the Rohingyas, whose total number is estimated at no more than 40-50,000, become such an issue. How irredentism plays out, see in Trump wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico, take back the Panama Canal and acquire Greenland. For India, it’s the promise of taking back Aksai Chin and PoK. And while not talked about much these days, there’s still the idea of restoring the real glory of Akhand Bharat. Gender and race do not play out the same way in India as in the West, and thank God for that. India’s safety valve is the diversity built into its essential design and the multiplicity of vote banks, where harping on one race/identity issue could alienate others.

 

Nevertheless, the direction in India is populism too. In 2014, Modi came to power on the promise of minimum government/maximum governance. We’ve seen the size of the government grow bigger. The promise of privatisation is so completely forgotten (Air India apart) that now it is said with competitive pride that PSUs have never done better than under this government. As I write this, I see breathless celebration over the fact that the Centre is investing another Rs 11,440 crore in the PSU steel plant at Vizag, which had been on the divestment list for years. What is populism, if not throwing good money after bad just to please some voters?

 

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