The limits of populism (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1 : Polity
Prelims level : Populism
Mains level : Historical underpinnings

Context

•  Democracy and populism are cousins.
•  A charismatic leader mesmerises the electorate, strikes an emotional chord and blurs the distinction between the leader and the led.
•  However, a charismatic-popular-populist pitch doesn’t automatically transcend into populism. It requires demagoguery wherein hitherto suppressed but popular desires get articulated by a mesmeriser who emerges as the saviour.
•  Both Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were charismatic but not populist as they assumed a guiding role vis-à-vis the people rather than getting subsumed by their worldview.
•  Gandhi didn’t hesitate to withdraw the non-cooperation movement in the aftermath of Chauri Chaura when it gained momentum, and Nehru stood for secularism and scientific rationality in the midst of Partition’s mass frenzy.
•  The popular and the populist can be perfect strangers or bedfellows, and their transition into populism lies in a social, political and electoral mix.

History of populist elections

•  The post-Independence India witnessed the first populist national election transcending into populism in 1971, on the plank of Indira Gandhi’s “Garibi Hatao” slogan.
•  Being true to the saltiness of the turbulent late-1960s and 1970s, she adopted left-wing populism, denouncing her rivals as right-wingers.
•  To be called right wing at the time implied being anti-democratic, anti-people and anti-poor.
•  That populism made the leader and the led coterminous. It was even proclaimed that ‘Indira is India’.

What makes an election populist and determines its final transition into populism?

•  The answer can be found by locating the constituent elements of the package.
•  The foremost, one needs a democratic set-up real or farcical as the ‘masses’ are indispensable to populism.
•  A charismatic leader is required, someone seen as an insider-outsider in the system offering a therapy for an ailing polity.
•  It denotes a politics of ‘impatience’ and ‘exasperation’. Institutions and established procedures are seen to be subverted by the privileged elite to retain their advantage over the ‘masses’.
•  The collective quest then is for a larger-than-life saviour to recover the national self.
•  A leviathan demon must be imagined whose destruction only a messiah is capable of causing. This takes the focus away from institutions/structures to personalities.
•  A perfect battleground of protagonist vs. antagonist is drawn. In a nutshell, populism offers a biographical solution to structural problems.
•  A saviour is presented who must seek popular approval to take the demon head on. An election in a democratic set-up is the perfect occasion for this crusade.

The story since 2014

•  True to the populist requirement, Mr. Modi emerged as the complete package, being everything to everyone.
•  A ‘Hindu-Hriday-Samrat’ to the Hindutva constituency, a ‘developmentalist’ for the corporate and middle class, a ray of hope for the rural masses, an ultra-nationalist for those sensing a national drift, a ‘chaiwala’ for the poor, and an insider-outsider to the masses feeling vanquished by the very system that is supposed to empower them.
•  Thus, the circle of electoral populism that emerged from the leftward vantage point in 1971 got completed in 2014 with the right-wing populism of Mr. Modi.

Post-charismatic leadership

•  The fine distinction between the incumbent right-wing populist and the liberal elite is blurred due to associational factors, such as the competition for the same sort of rhetoric on pro-people policies, making the slogan for anti-elitism, a prerequisite for any kind of populism, feeble.
•  There hasn’t been a policy solution to the problems afflicting the people in 2014. Rather, with a high unemployment rate, deep rural distress, etc., the government has been pushing the problems out of the frame, rather than solving them.
•  For instance, by suppressing data on unemployment, and making audacious claims that ‘job-seekers have become job-givers’. However, when the masses suffer, the populist leader’s capacity to strike an emotional chord so that they trust him by reputation is tough.

Way forward

•  Hence, all the political hullaballoo over post-Pulwama hyper-nationalism may offer a shot in the arm to the BJP amid the the dwindling charm of Mr. Modi.
•  However, a repeat of the 2014 kind of populism against the backdrop of undelivered promises will require a collective embrace of ‘self-deception’ by a significant majority besides the party’s core base.
•  Populism is no more the defining feature of Indian politics and, by extension, of Indian democracy.
•  All the narratives offered are fractured, including that of nationalism.
•  In all likelihood, the Lok Sabha elections, too, will yield a fractured mandate.
•  A fractured mandate at this juncture will be a good omen for Indian politics as democracy mustn’t be reduced to the biography of a leader.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) Consider the following about Nuclear Triad.
1. A triad consists of nuclear weapons delivery by aircraft, ballistic missiles and submarine launched missiles.
2. India is the only country other than USA to have a nuclear triad.
3. Completing a nuclear triad is a pre-requisite for membership of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) for non-signatories of NPT.

Select the correct answer using the codes below.
a) 1 and 2 only
b) 1 only
c) 2 and 3 only
d) 1 and 3 only

Answer: B

Mains Questions:
Q.1) How this phenomenon unfolds in these Lok Sabha elections is yet to be seen, but one big takeaway lies in the fact that a populist election without a charismatic leader cannot transcend into populism?