The Liberal Conundrum

Who is a liberal? Is there anyone who is truly liberal in his political views these days? The recent conversations around the US Presidential elections really makes one wonder. It has no doubt been a highly polarised political campaign by both candidates. Trump's position is understandable, he is a highly bigoted, prejudiced and polarising figure. But even his opponents have not really been the paragons of high morality either. In fact, their hatred for everything Trump represents has been as visceral as Trump's contempt for them. They claim to oppose Trump and his views as he represents the parochial as against their liberal worldview. But could they be called liberal in the real sense of the word just because they are ideologically opposed to Trump and some of the other Right wing strongmen across the world? How could you consider your yourselves liberal and then hate and look down upon someone else and his supporters, however regressive you feel their views are? How could you disdainfully put down millions who have supported a particular viewpoint for whatever reason as if their views count for nothing? If you look down upon someone in contempt, how could you reach out to them? And if you are not ready to build bridges with someone with a divergent view, how could you claim to be liberal? This is true in the context of India also. Here also, for whatever reason justified or unjustified, Modi and his Right Wing supporters have found a lot of traction with a large majority of people. And all of them couldn't be painted in the same brush as bigoted or communal. In the same way, anyone who opposes their viewpoint could not claim to be liberal by default. In fact many of them are as bigoted on their worldview as the Right Wing. And violence too is a weapon liberally employed by both sides, be it the Hindi heartland or places like Kerala and Bengal. Just like anyone with a contrary view is declared 'anti-national' by the Right wing these days, anyone supporting Modi too is immediately certified as communal by the so called liberals and attacked vociferously. If no one is seeking a middle ground, isn't everyone partisan and illiberal? In fact it seems anyone trying to attain a middle ground is instantly declared either a 'left sympathiser' or a 'communal bigot' by the opposite sides. Under these highly polarised circumstances, it seems nobody could claim to be a liberal until you are ready to engage with those whose views or even leadership options are highly unamenable to you.