Prime Minister Vajpayee shouldn't be so miffed by western sermons on Gujarat. It is inevitable in today's globalised world. More so, when there are so many Gujaratis living in Europe, 6,00,000 in Britain alone. And if our persecuted Muslims and Christians start seeking asylum in western democracies, they'd have greater reason to lecture us.
But we should be mindful that Europeans lecture themselves much more. Europe exulted over Far Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's rout in the French presidential polls. The European Commission president, Romano Prodi, declared triumphantly that Le Pen's "extremist and isolationist policies have been rejected and crushed". Nothing in recent times aroused as much shock, anger and disgust across Europe as his good showing in the first round of these elections. An "astounded and horrified" British Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, said Le Pen's gains "throw a great dirty rock into the European political pool".
Europeans don't merely sermonise, they don't hesitate to punish. Two years ago, the EU imposed sanctions on Austria when the Far Right party of Joerg Haider joined the ruling coalition. This in spite of the fact that Haider had won his votes democratically. In Europe, far right politics are still only at the level of growing popularity and at best, participating in ruling coalitions. Their gains and conduct is still well within the realms of democratic norms. So, against the backdrop of using state machinery to attack Muslims and the continuing violence in Gujarat, the European censure was relatively mild.
As in India, so too in Europe, frustration, insecurity, anger and grievance is fuelling the rise of right-wing politics. It is not only in Austria and France that xenophobia and racism is gaining ground. The winds of right-wing radicalism are blowing across Europe. In India, the punchbags are minorities. In Europe, it's immigrants. Europeans are swamped by 7,00,000 immigrants a year, with an additional 5,00,000 illegal aliens arriving clandestinely from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe in truckloads and boatloads, seeking jobs. In all these rich European countries, local whites have linked rising drug-dealing and crime to unchecked immigration. They see immigrants as parasites cadging off their welfare system. Besides, they are fed up with high taxes, corruption, mismanagement and cronyism in the existing parties as well as job insecurities in the wake of globalisation. It becomes easy to pin all their problems on the immigrants.
To an extent, immigrants have invited a negative image because of their poverty, crime and violence. But the truth is that they have also contributed to Europe's prosperity. They have, in fact, created, and not robbed, jobs. Due to its declining and aging population, Europe needs immigrant workers to keep its factories and businesses going. But all over the world, rabble-rousing far right politicians have scant respect for truth. They are street-fighters who speak the language of emotion, division, anger and fear. More and more disaffected farmers, factory workers and small business operators are listening to them and nodding their heads in agreement.
Le Pen lost an eye in a street brawl and was convicted for assaulting a woman socialist politician. He grew up in a picturesque sailing village shooting the glass out of street lamps with catapults accompanied by local toughs, and earning the reputation of being a "terror". Dressed in pin-stripe suits, Austria's right-wing leader Joerg Haider is called "Le Pen with style". A telegenic, millionaire lawyer, Joerg inherited 38,000 acres of estate that once belonged to Jews. Different from Haider's ideological moorings was Pin Fortuyn, the gay, shaven-headed racist leader of the far right in the Netherlands who was gunned down a few days ago.He was expected to win one-fifth the national vote in the May 15 elections. European far right leaders are different and distinct. But there is a commonality: they are saying out aloud what their sullen electorate thinks and what liberal politicians dare not discuss, let alone deal with. They strike a chord because they articulate people's anger and anxieties. Their platforms are the same: ultra-nationalism, protectionist economics and interventionist social policies.
As in India, the rise of the far right has much to do with the failure of the secular, liberal parties to deliver on governance and security. Tony Blair sees the writing on the wall. He admits: "There is always a danger that if people feel there are certain real social problems that aren't being tackled by those in power, they will be seduced by deeply unpleasant populism." Many French say they don't want to be ruled by right-wingers but voted them only to jerk liberals out of their apathy and inaction. They certainly have succeeded in activating liberal citizens, if not the politicians. Over a million French citizens marched into the streets to protest Le Pen's electoral gains. And the presidential polls turned into a plebiscite, with voters unequivocally rejecting right-wing extremism.
Why is Europe so determined to crush radical right-wingers who are campaigning on an agenda of jingoism, racism, hate doctrine and intolerance? (Sounds familiar?) Simply because this agenda has already been tried and tested by Hitler and Mussolini with disastrous consequences, plunging Europe to war and ruin. Mainstream Europeans don't want to flirt with that danger ever again. They realise that grave social and economic problems can be tackled only through sound, effective policies. Right-wing demagogues and divisive politics strike emotional chords and may even yield short-term gains, but they inevitably push a nation to disaster. There is much for us to ponder over French President Jacques Chirac's warning: "The history of democracy shows that every time the extreme right succeed in taking power legally, things ended very, very, very badly."