Populism is a political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against privileged elite. Populism is the label political elites attach to policies supported by ordinary citizens that they don’t like.

When important concerns of the people are not addressed by the elites, the populist movements tend to form to challenge the establishment. Their ideas can rejuvenate democracy, bring new people into the political process, and adjust the political system to societal change.

Populist nationalists, or pop-nats as they are called, share some common characteristics.

• They are pro-national sovereignty in a very literal way—emphasizing walls, statues and other physical structures.
• They are against the idea of immigration and for the idea of national “purity” derived from an arbitrary but specifically chosen point in national history.
• Most of them appear to have an illiberal, authoritarian streak. They have a “win at all costs”
• They believe that national institutions have become encrusted with bureaucratic cholesterol and they have been chosen by the people to break up their power.
• They generally prefer to go directly to the people through the medium of their choice.
• Their communication through Twitter or radio is generally unidirectional where they control the narrative.
• They do not brook dissent.

Populist Nationalism is divisive and affects Economic growth of the country:

• In India, populism as a term has generally been used for fiscal handouts for the less privileged — loan waivers, poverty alleviation schemes, etc.
• If a religious, ethnic or racial majority constitutes “the people”, we get populism that aligns with the right. The latter is hostile to ethnic, religious and racial minorities, and inhospitable to those new migrants, who are different from the majority community.
• Populism of the right, thus, tends to acquire the form of majoritarian nationalism, unconstrained by minority rights.
• Populists repudiate pluralism, for the people can only be one and they are the people. This explains their tendency to disqualify their rivals, and even reject the multiparty system of democracy.
• Populists generally rise to power in the wake of a social or moral crisis connected with an economic crisis and/or corruption scandals.
• It took over power in several European countries in the inter-war period. It is back in a different form today. Anti-semitism has been replaced by a pervasive hostility to migrants and even, sometimes, by Islamophobia.
• The populists exploit antagonism in order to polarise their society: Paradoxically, those who claim that they are the incarnation of the people divide this people along religious, racial or linguistic lines to win elections through majoritarian tactics.
• The societies affected by populism suffer from one more pathology, socio-economic frustrations due to joblessness or rising inequalities and unmet expectations.
• The issue helps almost systematically the populists who can make promises to the frustrated aspiring sections, use idle vigilantes at the time of canvassing and designate scapegoats that the same young men are (trigger) happy to lynch on the altar of their anger.

Populism has its own positives:

• Populism is not a full-blown ideology like liberalism, conservatism or socialism.
• It is a “thin-centered” discourse rooted in the idea of popular will and is comfortable aligning itself to any ideology that could be broadly appealing to a majority.
• Populism is also rampantly anti-elitist. It views the masses as pure and virtuous and the elites as immoral and self-serving who should be overthrown. Hence the argument that populism has a Manichean ethic.
• It equates democracy with elections and referenda, for they represent popular will. It believes that the non-elected institutions of oversight — the judiciary, press, intelligence agencies, civil society, central banks — which normally constrain democratic governments between elections, must follow electoral verdicts, not their institutionally assigned roles. Being unelected, their autonomy should be curbed, even crushed.
• If the poor or the underprivileged are said to be “the people”, populism hitches on to the left, and income redistribution and welfare-oriented policies follow.
• Finally, populism hinges upon charismatic leaders having direct, unmediated access to the masses. Political parties or the press, while necessary, are expected to be subservient to the leader.

Conclusion:

The answer lies in fearlessly and courageously standing in the headwinds of crisis times in which some pied pipers would try to use right wing populism to attract people for quick fixes, which would never be possible. Only rational thinking rather than impulsive feelings and anger can solve the problems of our times. Fishing in the troubled waters may be politically expedient, but regressive political and economic policies would entail a bigger cost. In post truth politics, self righteousness is writ very large and this complicates problems making our stands irreconcilable.