Ramsha Shahid<\/p>\n
With around 40 countries scheduled to vote in 2024, including the world\u2019s old\u00adest and largest democracies: the United States and India, the globe is expected to witness a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. The political landscape is clouded by the possibility of Donald Trump\u2019s return to power and PM Narendra Modi\u2019s re-election which would further strengthen the hold of populist politics. India is gear\u00ading up for elections in April and May while the US has elections scheduled for November this year. Despite all the hype and confusion about these elections\u2019 results, one question that keeps coming up is: what would be the fate of populism in the countries that are frequently praised as the epitome of democracy?
\nPopulism has resurged in recent decades in many countries. The po\u00adlitical vacuum created by tradition\u00adal political parties and their con\u00adventional style of politics paved the way for populist leaders like Don\u00adald Trump and Narendra Modi who gained popularity through their bombastic, chaotic and disruptive style of leadership. These leaders are adept at channelling and pack\u00adaging the fears and concerns of the general public while presenting themselves as someone who comes from outside the existing politi\u00adcal system. They act as both arson\u00adist and firefighters, who declare the country is in chaos and then offer themselves as the saviours.
\nWith the defeat of Trump in the 2020 presidential election in the US there were assumptions that pop\u00adulism might not survive in future politics. However, recent trends for the 2024 elections are forecast\u00ading a favourable situation for popu\u00adlist leaders to re-emerge and seize power. According to the latest Re\u00aduters\/Ipsos polls, Trump is leading in the race for presidential nomina\u00adtions from the Republican Party. It is astonishing that his hold on the Republican Party is unwavering, despite multiple criminal charges including his role in sparking the uprising of 6 January 2021. Many commentators also believe that he has a better chance to return to the White House since he left office.
\nEven though Donald Trump has offered only vague proposals, opin\u00adion polls show that voters by a large margin view Republicans as better stewards of the economy. Similar\u00adly, a sizable portion of the Ameri\u00adcan electorate remains receptive to Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d manifes\u00adto, defined by protectionist trade policies and stringent immigra\u00adtion laws. This is especially true for working-class voters fed up with globalisation and the idea that their country is becoming less American.
\nIf Donald Trump is elected, his ideas for government have already been made known to us. Domestically, he plans to use the Justice Department as a weapon to target his opponents in the administration and media, fill positions in government with staunch supporters, and eliminate any dissent from the civil service. Similarly, his foreign policy approach would fur\u00adther undermine the global peace ef\u00adforts especially his confrontational policy towards China, and stance on issues like climate change. This sce\u00adnario would prove his opponent\u2019s criticism and warnings true that he is plotting an autocratic rule against democratic norms just on the basis of his widespread popularity.
\nComparably, the Hindu national\u00adist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), un\u00adder Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is anticipated to hold power for the consecutive third term. Recent find\u00adings from the \u201cMood of the Nation Poll\u201d, a survey by a private media group, showed that voters contin\u00adue to see Modi as a popular nation\u00adalist leader who can win 335 of 543 directly elected seats in the parlia\u00adment. PM Modi, in a bid to bolster his populist credentials and ral\u00adly support for his re-election cam\u00adpaign, ceremoniously inaugurated the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. This gesture represents the culmination of a nationalistic movement aimed at galvanising India\u2019s Hindu major\u00adity across diverse castes and tribes, effectively leveraging populist tac\u00adtics to solidify his support base.
\nPM Modi\u2019s popularity among his supporters has been solidified by his acceptance of Hindutva philos\u00adophy and his expansionist tenden\u00adcies based on the idea of \u201cAkhnad Bharat\u201d. His populism, which ap\u00adpeals to ingrained feelings of pride in one\u2019s country and cultural his\u00adtory, continues to have a signifi\u00adcant impact on India as it struggles with questions of religious and so\u00adcial identity. With Modi winning, he will be free to carry out his objec\u00adtive of converting the Indian state to a Hindu state, alienating Muslims and other minorities, and raising the possibility of violence against these communities.
\nThe writer is a researcher at Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS), Lahore, Pakistan. She can be reached at info@casslhr.com<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ramsha Shahid With around 40 countries scheduled to vote in 2024, including the world\u2019s old\u00adest and largest democracies: the United States and India, the globe is expected to witness a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. The political landscape is clouded by the possibility of Donald Trump\u2019s return to power and PM Narendra Modi\u2019s re-election which would further strengthen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[13328],"class_list":["post-395004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-article","tag-ramsha-shahid"],"yoast_head":"\n