Who is Zohran Mamdani? The So-Called Wonderboy of America
Hitler’s Rise Through Populism: A Historical Parallelogram
- The Global Pattern of Populist Rhetoric and Deception
- Empty Promises and Political Realities: The Mamdani Analogy
- The Danger of Smooth Talkers in Troubled Times
Justice Markandey Katju compares Zohran Mamdani's populist promises to Hitler and other global leaders who rose on rhetoric but failed to deliver.
Zohran Mamdani and Hitler
By Justice Markandey Katju
I have already written an article on Zohran Mamdani, calling him the Wonderboy of America.
Zohran Mamdani reminds me of Hitler, who in the 1930 elections to the Reichstag promised the moon to the German people, which consequently catapulted the then tiny Nazi Party with only 12 seats in the Reichstag to becoming the second largest party in Germany with 107 seats.
Hitler offered something to everyone: work to the unemployed; prosperity to the people; profits to businessmen; expansion to the army; social harmony and an end of class distinctions to idealistic young students; and restoration of German glory to those in despair. He promised to bring order amid chaos; a feeling of unity to all and the chance to belong. He would make Germany strong again; end payment of war reparations to the Allies; tear up the treaty of Versailles; stamp out corruption. He even promised husbands to women!
Other such slick and crafty demagogues have done the same in several countries. I have already mentioned the names of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in my article above, but scores of other names of such Pied Pipers of Hamelin can be given whom the gullible people followed like children, and were later disillusioned.
The populist Argentinian leader Juan Peron was one such fraudster and con artist, who took Argentina for a ride, as did the present corrupt Brazilian President Lula. Another was the former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who promised 'roti, kapda aur makaan' (bread, clothes and housing) to all Pakistanis (and was later hanged for his pains), or former Prime Minister Imran Khan who promised 'Madine ki Riyasat' (whatever that may mean), and is currently in Adiala jail.
Zohran Mamdani is thus following in the footsteps of his illustrious forebears. He is a suave, glib, ingratiating, silver-tongued smooth talker, who, like Hitler, taking advantage of the people's economic distress, has made a plethora and cornucopia of promises, most of which cannot possibly be kept (for the reasons given in my article above). However, there will be enormous pressure on him from the people of New York to fulfil his promises once he becomes Mayor, and then we will see him running helter-skelter for cover, and with all kinds of excuses.
He has suddenly been hurled into the limelight, but will one day surely be revealed for what he really is--a pretentious, fustian, empty headed, high sounding, but gaseous, orutund, hifalutin and hollow rhetorician, whose agenda reminds one of Shakespeare's line in Macbeth ''It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.''
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman of the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own.)
