The democracies of the world must act and make it clear that they will not support right-wing insurgents.
Release Date – 12:30 AM, Thu – 12 January 23
The democracies of the world must act and make it clear that they will not support right-wing insurgents.
Hyderabad: The chaos in Brazil shows how power-obsessed dictators and their deranged supporters can blackmail their country for ransom if the public mandate in democratically held elections runs against them. Supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro have rampaged through the streets of Brasilia, storming the presidential palace, parliament building and the Supreme Court. Hooligans took to the streets, unable to digest the electoral defeat of their leader, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, came to power ruling. The unrest began a week after Lula was sworn in. The scene in Brasilia bears a striking resemblance to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump. Brazil’s right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro has been trying for months to undermine the election results he lost, much in the same way Trump did after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Supporters of Bolsonaro are seeking to overturn the results of Brazil’s election and bring the former president back to power. Similar to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, mobs storming the Brazilian capital overpowered police surrounding the Capitol and stormed the halls of power. Supporters of Bolsonaro complained online about a so-called “communist takeover” – the exact same rhetoric that sparked riots in Washington two years ago.
Parallel to the riots at the Capitol, some supporters of the former president attempted to deflect responsibility by blaming the storming of government offices on external agitators or supporters of President Lula. Dramatic scenes saw thousands of protesters, some wearing yellow Brazilian soccer jerseys and waving flags, break free from a police pursuit and loot the heart of Brazil. Throughout his tenure, Bolsonaro has repeatedly questioned the efficiency of Brazil’s institutions – accusing the Supreme Federal Court of being politically against him and the voting system prone to fraud, although there is no evidence to support those claims. Chaos is a new low for democracy in South America, a continent notorious for its dictatorship and authoritarianism. Brazilian authorities have come under fire for neither learning from the U.S. Capitol intrusion nor preempting similar incidents in their own country. What happened in the United States two years ago originated from Trump’s “baseless” allegations against the 2020 presidential election. It seems that Bolsonaro learned from Trump’s approach and provoked trouble. India has good bilateral relations with Brazil, and being a member of the BRICS bloc, India has rightly condemned the anarchist developments. The democracies of the world must act quickly to make it clear that they will not support right-wing insurgents.
