In the first week of February last year, hundreds of students stood vigil at the gates of hallowed debating society at Oxford, posters and placards in hand, picketing against what they called a black day in the annals of the university.
“Oxford union, shame on you”; they cried their lungs out. Shame for having invited France’s ultra-right wing leader Marine Le Pen.
When Pen did not arrive at the designated hour, the motley group of 300-odd protesters thought they had won the battle for the day. It was only much later that the reality dawned on them that the daughter of the once-openly racist French leader Jean-Marie Le Pen had entered the venue two hours ahead of the scheduled time from a side-gate.
And all this time as the students stood guard at the gates, Pen had already launched into a diatribe which began with a thanksgiving to the organisation since its “foundation has been a place of open debate and freedom of expression”.
On realising what had happened, someone in the cosmopolitan diverse group made a telling remark: the world seems to have taken a right turn.Also Read: Donald Trump Triumphs Over Hillary Clinton in White House Upset
From Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey to Shinzo Abe in Japan in the far-east, the list just keeps growing - depicting the rise of ‘anti-politician’.
Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau has been the only exception.Also Read: At Under $5 each, Donald Trump's Votes Came Cheap
So what is it that makes the political right click in the current milieu?
A common thread which runs through the campaigns of most of the successful right wing netas is a carefully crafted narrative which can be called a direct anti-thesis to what politicians are supposed to be: politically correct.
Trump all through the campaign said and did things exactly the opposite of any political rule book. He mocked minorities, he brazened out allegations of sexual escapades, he was disdainfully sexist in his rhetoric; he was chided and left to fend for himself by the GoP grandees. And yet he won!
The answer perhaps lies in the cumulative and cross-section contempt for what is seen as a growing disdain for the ruling cabal. The political class as such, irrespective of the affiliation, is increasingly been seen as a part of the ruling class.
Except for the rhetoric, nothing substantive differentiates the contestants that cry hoarse during the campaign. Even the mainstream media is dubbed as an accomplice, as something which is seen to be the part of the ruling clique.Also Read: Top Goals for President Donald Trump, hurdles in front of him
Sample this. At Delhi’s Kwality Restaurant on the Connaught Place, a group of about a dozen Americans feast on chana-bhatura. All are glued in to CNN International as the counting reaches its last leg. All are Trump supporters. And they all are unapologetic about their choice.
“Trump is what he is,” says one.
“Quite unlike Hillary, who stood by her husband despite knowing all too well what Bill did with an intern,” quipped the other.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview to Network18, said how he has never been accepted by the Lutyens’ club. Just like two former PMs Deve Gowda and Morarji Desai, both quintessentially outsider politicians.
The imagery of the ‘Corruption Hunter Arvind Kejriwal’, used by Aam Aadmi Party, is a vintage example in this genre. Adapted from the Hollywood thriller Vampire Hunter: Abraham Lincoln, the party successfully changed the perception of their leader by projecting him as someone who was out to clean up the system.
In the changing paradigm, there are also those who have tried to adapt to the altered dynamics of mainstream politics.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize winning Myanmarese leader has surprised many with the majoritarian position she has taken in the fight between Buddhist majority and Rohingya Muslim minorities. Once the darling of the western media, of late, she has come under sharp criticism for her position.
If anything, Suu Kyi has only thrived in her new avatar.
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