{"id":692,"date":"2020-01-26T10:37:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-26T10:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/?p=692"},"modified":"2020-01-26T11:26:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T11:26:35","slug":"why-the-71st-republic-day-celebration-of-india-has-turned-into-a-far-right-political-conclave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/why-the-71st-republic-day-celebration-of-india-has-turned-into-a-far-right-political-conclave\/","title":{"rendered":"WHY THE 71st REPUBLIC DAY CELEBRATION OF INDIA HAS TURNED INTO A FAR-RIGHT POLITICAL CONCLAVE?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The BJP government\ncelebrated the 71st<\/sup> Republic Day parade, 2020 with a Chief Guest who\nis currently denounced worldwide for the Amazon massacre. While our Prime\nMinister himself is facing criticism on the Kashmir and Citizenship Ammendment\nissues, both domestically and internationally, the choice for the Brazilian\nPresident Jair Bolsonaro as the Guest-of-Honour portrays a canvas of a\npolitical meet between two far-right leaders, both of whom are facing severe\neconomic crisis, resorting to disastrous neo-liberal \u2018solutions\u2019 and opting for\nsocio-cultural chauvinism as an easy way out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolsonaro is on a 4 day\nvisit to India since 24th<\/sup> January. It is publicized that such a\nstate visit is intended to strengthen bilateral ties since the 2018-19\nbilateral trade worth 8.4 billion US dollars included Indian exports (petroleum\nproducts, pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals etc.) of 3.8 billion US dollars with\n4.4 US dollar Brazilian investments on automobiles, IT, mining etc. With the\ncurrent slowdown in the automobile and IT sectors in India, both leaders are\nclueless with regards to further investments on either sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst the ongoing\nsugarcane crisis in Maharashtra, Karntaka and Uttar Pradesh, Bolsonaro has\ncriticized India\u2019s policy of subsidies (which came after a huge delay only when\nthe mill owners were facing bankruptcy) as against the global business norms.\nBrazil being the largest sugar exporter in the world, Bolsonaro\u2019s obvious intentions\ndefinitely prove antagonistic to the farmer\u2019s cause. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Strategic Action\nPlan\u2019 ready to be signed by both sides includes mutual co-operation in defence,\ntechnology and logistics. While positions of the two leaders seem to differ\nwith respect to climate change, but it so only superficially since in terms of\npolicy implementations, both are ready to promote corporate land grab, reckless\ndeforestation, extensive illegal mineral extraction etc. The ready to be signed\n\u201cSocial Security Agreement\u201d between both countries is intended to promote\ninvestments in each other\u2019s domestic pension schemes. The grave concern on the\nsecurity of the senior citizens amidst growing opportunities of speculations in\nthe pension reserves is thus justified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on his year-long\ntrack record since he assumed office on 1st<\/sup> January, 2019, the socio-economic\nand political agendas of the present Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro surrounds\nthe following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Snatching land rights from the indigenous people:<\/strong> A practical implementation of this agenda and the consequent corporate appeasement has come to limelight in the aftermath of the devastating Amazon forest fires. Being one of the largest environmental massacres in recent times, the Amazon debate, triggered by the government\u2019s ignorance and the ecological importance of the forest, has put the ulterior intention of the Bolsonaro administration into question. While Amazon is dominating the criticisms against Bolsonaro, his other anti-people agendas are not inferior in any regard.<\/li>
  2. Neoliberal Policies: <\/strong>Bolsonaro intends to denationalize the health and education sector, changing the pension system by raising the retirement age, reducing federal spending, increasing domestic taxation, reducing the cost of doing business and transferring the country\u2019s natural resources into the pockets of multinationals and speculators. <\/li>
  3. Direct attack on the working class:<\/strong> Alongside both the above central characteristics, the attack on the working class is continuing at an unprecedented pace. Since the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the interim administration of Michel Temer had faced the largest Brazilian general strike in 2017. However, the condition of the working people is worsening under the current Bolsonaro government as he cuts end-of-year bonus, intends to revoke a long list of labour laws and criminalize those associated with movements demanding rights of peasants and the homeless. <\/li>
  4. Liberalizing Brazil\u2019s gun laws:<\/strong> Brazil being the homicide capital of the world with a record of 63,880 people murdered in 2017, enabling easy access of guns to the public may prove otherwise in the question of public security. <\/li>
  5. Propaganda in Education:<\/strong> Instead of trying to make the education system free and more inclusive, the Bolsonaro administration has embarked on deleting the so-called \u2018Marxist garbage\u2019 and gender studies and introducing chapters on morality, traditional values and patriotism into the syllabus. At the same time, the Bolsonaro administration is desperate in promoting Evangelical Christianity amidst a wide range of Christian sects living in his country. Needless to mention, the new introductions are mere propaganda in the road to authoritarianism. Bolsonaro\u2019s endorsement of the 1964 military coup and his pre-election speeches promoting militarism against democracy further raises concerns. \u00a0<\/li>
  6. Denunciation of Maduro government in Venezuela:<\/strong> The Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo had earlier appealed to the BRICS nations to recognize US-backed Juan Guaido as the Venezuelan President in opposition to the incumbent legitimate socialist President Nicholas Maduro; needless to mention why Trump is enthusiastic in recruiting Bolsonaro into the NATO. However, the BRICS nations remained silent on this issue. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Though the 14 year-long leftist rule in Brazil since 2002 was successful in championing various pro-people agendas such as improvement of healthcare, education systems and introduction of government schemes for the unemployed but widespread corruption, massive national debt, real-estate speculations and political instability sowed the seeds of its downfall. A further catalyst to this turmoil was the economic crisis triggered by the sluggish return from cheap credits distributed throughout the last decade, consequent stock market upheavels, fall in international oil prices and disruption of the country\u2019s import-export stability. Brazil is the largest exporter to and importer from China. Hence, the economic slowdown in China on 2015-16 accentuated the Brazilian economic crisis with fall in the country\u2019s GDP by 3.8% in 2015 and 3.6% in 2016. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Though\na by-product of Brazilian economic crisis and military support, according to\nthe election statistics, Bolsonaro does not politically represent 60.76% of the\npopulation. Under his administration, the economic recovery from the previous\nrecession has been sluggish, unemployment has increased from 7.6 million in\n2012 to 13.4 million in 2019 and fiscal deficit has raised national debt to\n77.1%. It is anticipated that another recession is on its way\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A\nquick look at the above characteristics of the Bolsonaro government shows a\nstriking similarity with the present far-right administration in India. Some of\nsuch similarities are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. India exports mainly to the US and imports mainly from China. Economic crisis in both countries has fuelled an economic slowdown in India. The IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva has said, \u2018The global economy is now in a synchronized slowdown\u2026 In some of the emerging market economies, such as India and Brazil, the slowdown is even more pronounced\u2026\u2019. <\/li>
    2. India is ready to accentuate corporate land grab and has an inherent disregard for environmental causes. The revoking of Article 370 of Kashmir for easy access to lignite (among other causes), extension of AFSPA in Nagaland to undermine indigenous land rights, support towards man-made forest fires in the Ayodhya Hills, enactment of laws for snatching Adivasi land in Jharkhand (igniting the Pathalgadi movement against the previous Raghubar Das led BJP government) proves that Modi and Bolsonaro are twin brothers for the corporate cause.<\/li>
    3. Demonetisation (to stabilize the speculative market), GST (to boost the monopolies), reckless privatization, bank mergers and other neoliberal sanctions of the Modi government against the common Indians has only deepened the economic slowdown. <\/li>
    4. Modi government\u2019s passive support towards mob lynching, honour killings, murders inciting resistance against \u2018Love-Jihad\u2019, atrocities on student protests, discrimination of Dalits, Muslim hatred and widespread intolerance surpasses the outcomes of the vicious Brazilian \u2018Gun Law\u2019.<\/li>
    5. The draft \u2018National Education Policy\u2019 is a clear indication of Modi\u2019s agenda of privatisation in the education sector. Distortion of facts in history textbooks familiarizes with Bolsonaro\u2019s gag law in education. <\/li>
    6. The war-mongering efforts of Modi and Amit Shah with regards to Pakistan and support of several US and Israeli policies are enough to clear their intentions. Modi\u2019s opportunism with respect to Venezuela surrounds its dependence on Maduro for 10% of its oil imports. \u00a0<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Brothers-in-arms for\nthe common cause, the Modi government appears to be in a tutorial role for its\nBrazilian counterpart. Bolsonaro\u2019s reserved statement \u201cDynamic democracy<\/em>\nIndia will solve internal matter<\/em> CAA, Kashmir\u201d shows that he is keenly\nstudying the aggressive, communal and divisive position of the BJP before\nimplementing similar policies of hatred in the Brazilian context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Resurgence of movements\nof the working people of both countries against neoliberalism and fascistic\npolicies is the only solution to put an end to the vicious outcome of such a\nfar-right political conclave.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The BJP government celebrated the 71st Republic Day parade, 2020 with a Chief Guest who is currently denounced worldwide for the Amazon massacre. While our Prime Minister himself is facing … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[45,47,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":699,"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jabardakhal.in\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}