This is truly a huge surprise to see Modi's party the BJP won the key state of Uttar Pradesh by such a landslide. You would have thought after the massive disruption he had caused to all India in November when he withdrew 500 and 1,000 rupee notes to fight corruption, voters would punish him.
Politicians everywhere except the tiny minority like Modi must be so nervous. Something is happening to voters across the world that they cannot sense or understand. A mysterious new wind is blowing. Dutch PM Rutte shows his nervousness as he campaigned for reelection by leaning against the Muslim minority. This is not what we all understand as the essence of being Dutch.
Update: March 18 2:00 pm
Until almost the last moment we all feared the Nativist side led by Wilders was going to win.
Voters and politicians are both learning and rejecting the crazy self defeating extreme right.
At 81 per cent, turnout was the highest in 30 years in an election that was a test of whether the Dutch wanted to end decades of liberalism and choose a nationalist, nativist path by voting for Wilders and his promise to “de-Islamicise” the Netherlands, quoting from the ST.
The British and Americans were complacent. Many did not turn up to vote. The Dutch dispatched themselves far better.
This headline put it better. Nativism might have lost but what was before has also ceased to live. It is new populism now. If incumbents take heed of this lesson, they can beat back the exxtreme right parties everywhere. Alas this lesson arrived too late for America and the UK.
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