THE world is in ferment as the US lurches dangerously to the extreme right. Europe too has discarded a long cultivated democratic pretence and is eyeing its chance in the melee. Hungary, Poland, Austria and Italy have been singled out by Donald Trump’s strategists, according to their leaked documents, to subvert democracy for a right-wing takeover in Trump’s footsteps. British, French and German establishments are nudging their countries also towards militarism. EU is targeting Russia, Palestine and Iran even as Nato looks poised to implode in the chaos of Trump’s claims over Greenland. The EU seeks to humour Trump over Venezuela while retaining a different yardstick to judge Vladimir Putin’s advances in Ukraine.
But the masses are retaliating. Venezuela and Mexico are staging massive rallies with sleeves rolled up to combat Trump’s threat to them. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, sensing enough was enough of his neighbour, is mending his country’s ties with China. He could be visiting Beijing shortly to counter the ultimatums to Canada’s economy.
Ideally, this is the time for the left to be initiating and, where possible, spearheading mass movements against the rightward slide. Jeremy Corbyn recently unfurled the flag with a separate party to challenge the British establishment, which includes his former Labour Party colleagues who he watched with dismay removing the last stitch of morality by abetting Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza.
French left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is leading a mass upsurge against Emmanuel Macron and the EU, accusing European leaders of “prostrate servility” to Trump. Mélenchon homed in on President Emmanuel Macron’s ideas on sending troops and long-range weapons to Ukraine. He demanded referendums in Donbass, Crimea and all contested regions because “it’s the people who decide” rather than warmongering elites who “don’t give a damn about people’s lives”.
This is the time for the left to be initiating and, where possible, spearheading mass movements against the rightward slide.
The left in the US is punching above its weight to hold its ground, using every chink in Trump’s armour to put up a promising fight for democracy. In the absence of trustworthy support from the mainstream media, YouTube channels are abuzz with analysts and activists keeping Trump in their crosshairs. A white woman activist raging against MAGA’s nativism was murdered by Trump’s hired guns from ICE. The killing in Minneapolis has set off a prairie fire across states. In the absence of vocal criticism of Trump from the Congress, the left, increasingly joined by Jewish students and senior scholars, is intervening strategically to ensure that Trump gets his comeuppance in the November mid-term polls and thereby can be reined in from doing further damage. Regardless of the outcome the left won’t be accused of sitting on its hands when America was dismembering democracy.
Brazil and Colombia have slammed Trump’s abduction of a fellow Latin American president from his home in Caracas. Trump’s toolkit for Iran is different. A colour revolution is being quelled, says Pepe Escobar, a well-regarded Brazilian observer of the Middle East. Regardless of the images posted in Western media, Escobar says the Iranian leadership is braced for another round of war with US and Israel, only this time better prepared. It is a testament to the feckless ways of the left that a group like Mujahideen-i-Khalq, which was instrumental in deposing the Shah of Iran, has become a catspaw for Israeli and US intrusion in its own country. Veteran Iran watchers are sanguine that without the organisational skills and a well-oiled machinery of the deeply camouflaged Mujahideen-i-Khalq, Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince would have no standing with the rioters.
The Gulf has also been jolted by the events in Venezuela. “We are entering an era where international guarantees are fragile, institutions are weakened and power speaks louder than principle. Awareness today is not a luxury; it is a requirement for survival,” cautioned Saudi Arabia’s Arab News. It stressed that the seizure of Russian funds in Western banks was a betrayal of crucial trust that the world took for granted. “The lesson is clear. The time to act is now.” Interestingly, the writer in the Saudi paper is prominent UAE businessman Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor. It says something for the thread that still unifies the two countries despite their recent aloofness.
South Asia is inevitably deeply affected by the turn of events unfolding at breakneck speed in the Middle East and in Latin America. Pakistan, currently in the good books of Trump (for no palpable reason), has spoken out boldly on the heist in Venezuela, with its defence minister reportedly calling for the abduction of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu by the US (instead of Nicolás Maduro who should be freed). Bangladesh has witnessed street protests for Nicolás Maduro.
However, India, once a champion of lost causes in the Global South has been slow poisoned into becoming a basket case by its leaders seeking anchor in the West. When George W. Bush was in bad odour right across the world, a PEW survey said India was the rare country where Bush was popular. What does that say about the current leadership? Pulverised as a stag caught in the headlights of an approaching truck, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left his foreign policy to the tender care of hope and prayer. What excites him, however, is any lurking campaign to win another state election, or even a municipal poll, preferably by communally polarising voters.
Modi’s calendar this year perhaps captures the essence of his preferences and fears. To cheer him, assembly polls are due in opposition-ruled West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu in May. On the other hand, he is to host the BRICS summit around August, which comes with the terror of having to take an unequivocal stand on Trump’s thuggery and India’s one-sided love with the US. In the meantime, China, Russia and Iran began a week of joint naval exercises in South Africa’s waters on Saturday. The ‘BRICS Plus operation’ would “ensure the safety of shipping and maritime economic activities”. The sleeves have been rolled up, mostly.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2026
