I would rarely look to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi as a source for hope. But this morning, maybe I should.
It was widely expected that his ruling Bharatiya Janata party would win a landslide victory in the Indian general election, but it has not. It has fallen well short of a majority and will need a coalition to govern.
Why is that hopeful? There are at least three good reasons.
First, this is a major rejection of populist racism in India. Modi's government is profoundly, and deliberately, divisive on race issues. It is welcome that he has failed as a result.
Second, this is good for democracy. It shows that the power of populists can be challenged.
Third, it shows that forecasts of landslides can be inaccurate. We have to live in hope that this is also true in the UK.
Modi will, unfortunately, stay in power. He has a readily available coalition partner who will guarantee that happens. But, his failure is welcome, nonetheless. If enough people reject populism it can be held at bay.
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There are also positive developments in Mexico with the recent election of a female left of centre president
My hope for Mexico is that the USA stays out of Mexican politics and allows Ms Scheinbaum to get on and find solutions to Mexico’s numerous problems. US interference in the politics of Central and South America and the Caribbean have usually been to further US interests, when a good dose of socialism to get these countries off their knees is what was required, but denied. I lived in Brasil under a military government which USA financed, equipped and supported in order to unseat the democratically-elected, left-of-centre government of Jango Goulart. The methods used for the coup in Brasil were then used again to unseat Allende in Chile and USA’s presence in South & Central America is all too evident.
The huge inequalities which exist all across Central and South America are obvious and can’t be resolved by right-wing neoliberal policies, so good luck to Ms Scheinbaum, especially if Trump wins the next US election.