Rise Of The Right Wing

The Right wing has gained popular support in almost every part of the world, in Europe, in Asia, in the Americas. The dominance of the liberals which we had taken for granted, appears to be fading now. But why did this happen? How did the Rightists gain legitimacy all of a sudden? The answers may raise further questions, rather uncomfortable questions. But in order to understand the massive change in the world order in the past half a decade, we have to delve deeper and try to find answers to these questions.

A Pattern

Personality cult

To begin with, right wing leaders have projected themselves as larger than life Messiahs to deliver the masses from their miseries. They have taken advantage of the anti-incumbency sentiment prevalent among the citizens of their respective nations. They have stressed on the fact that they have come to challenge the ruling elite whom they often deride as weak, corrupt and inefficient. This personality cult has the potential to devastate the polity and economy of entire nations as the citizens fail to assess their leaders objectively when they start hero-worshiping them. This renders them oblivious to all their faults and shortcomings. What we get, is a blind following that never gets tired of singing paeans to the leader. Resultant, citizens are reduced to mere obsequious subjects.

Narendra Damodar Modi

Neo-Fascism

The narrative let loose in the contemporary social milieu is based on hatred, exclusion and demonetization of certain classes of the society, especially the minorities, which borders on fascism. Propaganda blitzes are being launched to brainwash the majority community into believing that the cause of their problems is none other than the minority. Today, one of the principal propaganda machines is social media. Lies and fake news is circulated on social media platforms to manipulate the mindset of the people. This ‘otherisation’ or hatred of the ‘other’ causes a divide in the society. Rightists capitalize on the deepest fears and emotions of people (like the xenophobia and Islamophobia that we are witnessing today in Europe) and raise their entire political edifice on this basis. As their beliefs are gaining acceptance among people, acts of violence against the religious and ethnic minorities are increasing day by day. Sometimes they are even state-sponsored. The perpetrators invariably manage to get away with their despicable deeds. In some instances they are even hailed as “saviors”. This normalization of violence is a cause of concern and may lead to lawlessness and anarchy. As we know, Jews were deemed as inferior citizens in Nazi Germany. Similarly, racial minorities in the U.S. and religious minorities in India are being looked at in the same light today.

Marine Le Pen

Crackdown on dissent

Critical thinking and a spirit of debate and dissent are being frowned upon these days by Right wing regimes. In India, archaic laws like sedition are being used as tools for silencing intellectuals, students and progressive individuals who dare to raise their voice against the ruling dispensation. Independent journalists are being imprisoned and even killed in various countries. Public discourse has reached an all-time low as right wing leaders often promise to exact violence on their political opponents, Bolsonaro being the latest addition to this category. The autonomy of investigating agencies has been eroded and these agencies are used to witch hunt political opponents by slapping on them various criminal charges.

Hyper-nationalism

Right wing regimes equate the leader and the party with the state. Hence healthy criticism against the government’s policies is labeled as treason. A jingoistic, hyper-nationalistic frenzy is whipped up in the minds of the people in order to divert their attention from pressing issues like poverty and unemployment. Instead the military is glorified and hate speeches and war mongering are encouraged. Rightists often make use of external threats (both real and imagined) to sustain a frenzied patriotism in the minds of the people. As mentioned before, they target certain communities and accuse them of being hand in glove with the external aggressors.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Why did this happen?

The Right wing has found support among the masses largely due to the failures of the capitalist liberals who had dominated World politics not less than half a decade ago. But the sustenance of their neo-liberal economic policies largely relied on the exploitation of the poor and marginalized sections of the society. As a result, income inequality increased, the rich got richer and the poor poorer. This led to simmering discontent and resentment among the middle class and the poor. People began to look for alternatives. At this juncture, the Right entered the arena and capitalized on the discontent. It made hollow promises and its venom-filled rhetoric sadly managed to strike a chord.

The Right wing onslaught on the society which is having a corrosive effect on the body politic has to be stymied by countering the venomous discourse of fear, hatred and exclusion through a narrative based on liberalism, inclusiveness and pluralism. An informed citizenry has to carry forward this mission.